The call was hosted by management, including Mr. Mikhil Innani (Managing Director & CEO), Ms. Diksha Nangia (Whole Time Director & CFO), and Ms. Pooja Gohel (Company Secretary and Compliance Officer).

Key Performance and Operational Highlights

Management highlighted the significant ramp-up of the company's digital lending product, Apollo Cash, since its launch. Key metrics disclosed include total disbursements of over ₹65 crore and more than 1.6 lakh loans disbursed to date. The product has also seen over 5 lakh downloads. This growth, described as a 60X scale-up in 6-7 months, was attributed to strong organic product-market fit, achieved with minimal paid marketing on platforms like Google or Facebook.

The increase in fees and commission revenue for the quarter was directly linked to the growing prominence of Apollo Cash in the financials, as all processing fees and interest revenue from this product land on the company's book, unlike its partnership business.

Strategic Focus and Future Outlook

Management outlined three core areas of focus for the coming months:

1. Platform Security & Stability: Dedicating nearly 100% of engineering bandwidth to building a secure, scalable platform, viewed as a critical moat for future growth.

2. Underwriting Model Evolution: Plans to release a new underwriting model based on data gathered over the last 6-7 months. The goals are to achieve better approval rates, significantly improved risk rates, and smarter, differentiated loan amount allocation to identify higher-quality customers.

3. Marketing Scalability: Preparing for a targeted, efficient marketing push focused on measurable bottom-line impact, not brand building or mindshare. This will be contingent on first optimizing the product funnel organically.

Team and Hiring Update

Hiring was emphasized as the single most important ongoing effort. The company's strategy focuses on hiring senior personnel with at least 5 years of experience in the digital lending space to ensure they can "hit the ground running." Recent key hires include:

  • Head of Marketing: Swaujas Chatterjee, who joined in Q2.
  • Head of Engineering: Expected to join in a subsequent quarter.

The tech team has grown significantly, with the engineering team alone expanding 3X in the quarter. Technology personnel now constitute 43% of the total team, a number expected to grow further as hiring continues in engineering, data science, and QA.

Capital and Growth Financing

Management addressed balance sheet capacity, noting the company has provisions to borrow about ₹100 crore from the debt market. With current leverage close to zero for an NBFC, there is significant headroom to scale. The company is confident it can comfortably double or even triple its current monthly disbursement volume (stated to be roughly ₹20-22 crore) without immediately requiring external capital. Engagement with lenders is anticipated in a couple of quarters once the utilization of available capital reaches 80-90%.

Q&A Session Highlights

Analysts inquired about:

  • The rationale behind increased fees and commissions, which was clarified as being due to Apollo Cash's revenue recognition model.
  • The strategy for balancing the seemingly conflicting goals of the new underwriting model (larger tickets, better approval, lower risk). Management explained it relies on machine learning fine-tuning with newly acquired data to differentiate between borrower cohorts.
  • The approach to marketing efficiency versus mindshare, reaffirming a focus on measurable ROI and targeted audience outreach.
  • The ideal customer profile, which management stated is still evolving organically but currently consists of digitally savvy users familiar with digital lending.
  • The average loan repayment timeline, which includes 3-month and 6-month tenures, with some borrowers exhibiting credit-card-like behavior (early repayment).
  • Growth targets, which management declined to specify quantitatively, reiterating a philosophy of under-promising and over-delivering while confirming ambitious scaling plans.

The call concluded with Diwali greetings to the participants.