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Apollo Finvest (India) Ltd. Call Transcript 2025

Feb 12, 2025

61265_rns_2025-02-12_4339b26a-a956-4df4-a90b-e48fb816a1d1.pdf

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

February 12, 2025

To, BSE Limited 25[TH] Floor, Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, Dalal Street, Mumbai 400 001

BSE Scrip Code: 512437

Sub: Transcript of Investor Call/ Earnings Call for the Quarter ended December 31, 2024

Dear Sirs,

Pursuant to Regulation 30 read with Schedule III of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, please find attached the transcript of the earnings call held on February 11, 2025 for the Quarter ended December 31, 2024.

We request you to kindly take the same on record.

Thanking You, For Apollo Finvest (India) Limited

Mikhil Digitally signed by Mikhil Ramesh Ramesh Innani Date: Innani 2025.02.12 17:04:50 +05'30'

Mikhil Innani Managing Director & CEO DIN: 02710749

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Management: Hi everyone, a very good morning!
Thank you for taking the time to join us today. We’re delighted to have both our
current and prospective investors with us.
I’m Ananya, and I work in the Founders' Office, focusing on strategy and
partnerships.
This past quarter—Q3 of the financial year 2024–25—has been both exciting and
transformative. We've made significant strides, particularly in business strategy
and technology, and we’re eager to share these updates with you.
To walk you through the key highlights and details, I’d now like to hand it over to
Diksha, our Whole-time Director and CFO, and Mikhil, our MD and CEO.
Diksha Nangia,
Director
Hi! Good morning, everyone. So happy to see you all here.
I’ll now request Mikhil to start the presentation, and then we’ll take you through
the details.
Okay, let’s begin with the first slide.
Great! These are the key highlights of our financial results. We’d be happy to walk
you through them in more detail later when we go through the financials and the
Q&A session.
Now, moving on to the next slide—this is how we’ve grown and scaled over the past
quarter. As you can see, our AUM has been growing consistently. In fact, this
quarter, our AUM stands at ₹85 crores, which is nearly double what it was in the
same quarter last year. Our disbursements have also been growing steadily to keep
pace with our AUM growth.
On the next slide, I’ll explain how this growth has been possible. This has primarily
been driven by our fundraising efforts, which the team has been working on for
some time. We have successfully secured sanctions worth close to ₹81 crores, of
which we have drawn down approximately ₹27.5 crores so far. In the last quarter
alone, we drew down around ₹15 crores worth of NCDs, and in Q3, we drew an
additional ₹12.5 crores. Of course, we anticipate further drawdowns in the coming
quarters as well.
Moving on to the next slide—I'm sure everyone is aware of the recent
developments in this space. The RBI temporarily barred four NBFCs from lending,
primarily due to high APRs. Many NBFCs resort to high APRs because delinquencies
in that segment tend to be higher. This restriction led to AUM shrinkage across the

APOLLO FINVEST

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. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

industry, prompting several players to re-strategize their business models to align
with RBI’s regulations and guidelines by shifting to lower-APR products.
At Apollo, we firmly believe in the fintech space and its long-term growth potential.
However, we chose to take a wait-and-watch approach, opting for indirect lending
rather than direct exposure. We have expanded our AUM through term loans rather
than issuing large-scale personal loans directly to end customers. Our ultimate goal
is to establish deeper DC and co-lending partnerships with NBFCs.
While we have taken a traditional approach to term loans, Apollo has always been
a tech-first NBFC. We have been internally discussing and reimagining how term
loans should evolve, envisioning a “Term Loan 2.0” model that aligns with our tech-
driven philosophy. We look forward to sharing more details in the coming quarters.
Speaking of technology, I’ll now hand it over to my tech partner, Mikhil, to walk you
through the exciting innovations we’ve built in our portal this past quarter.
Mikhil Innani,
Director
Alright! Thank you so much, Diksha, for sharing these amazing updates with us.
Now, I’m going to take you through some exciting updates from a tech perspective
and share what we’ve been working on.
Of course, one of the biggest topics on everyone’s mind today is AI, right? So, we
decided to develop AI—but specifically for the digital lending space, with Apollo’s
unique approach to it. That’s how we came up with something we like to call Apollo
Intelligence. It’s purely a coincidence that the acronym happens to be AI, but what
we’ve actually built is a suite of powerful tools and products that are quite
innovative.
What I’ll do now is walk you through some of these key developments, and at the
same time, show you some exciting demos so you can see them in action.
The First AI Development: Senti
Let’s start with the first AI-powered tool we built—Senti.
So, what is Senti? It’s essentially a solution to a problem that almost every industry
faces—not just digital lending. The challenge we’re tackling relates to customer
support and, more specifically, call centers.
Let me give you an example.
At Apollo, our business model revolves around partnerships with other NBFCs and
fintechs, which inturn havelarge-scale collectioncallcenters. These callcenters

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

handle collections on our behalf, but managing their efficiency and ensuring
compliance has always been a tricky task.
Traditionally, in the industry, the way compliance and efficiency are monitored is
by deploying managers who randomly check calls—typically, one in every 100 calls
per agent—to ensure they follow the script, remain compliant, and effectively
engage with borrowers.
We saw an opportunity to significantly improve this process.
How Senti Works
We built an automated tool that can analyze every single call in real-time. Not only
that, but we leveraged seven to eight years of digital lending data to develop a
speech recognition model that can understand every Indian dialect and accent
across different languages.
This is a game-changer because most speech recognition models available in the
market today are optimized for widely spoken global accents, but they struggle
with local Indian dialects. With millions of phone call interactions fed into our
models, we’ve trained Senti to accurately interpret and analyze conversations,
providing deep insights into compliance and efficiency.
Now, instead of relying on random call checks, our system can monitor every single
interaction, ensuring that agents adhere to guidelines while also helping us
enhance collection strategies.
To give you a better idea of what this looks like in action, let’s jump into a quick
demo.
Video Mr. Mikhil, your EMI is overdue. No more excuses—pay the full amount today, or
expect legal action, credit damage, and recovery agents at your door. This is your
final warning."
As you can see, Senti first generates a transcript of the call. It then assigns a
sentiment score, which in this case is negative.
Additionally, Senti provides detailed remarks that break down the tone and
sentiment of the conversation, highlighting areas of concern.
This is how Senti transforms call recordings into actionable insights—helping
lenders ensure compliance, improve collection strategies, and enhance customer
interactions.
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
Alright, perfect! Hopefully, that gives you better insights into how Senti works.

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

We’ll also be uploading this presentation on BSE, so you can explore it further and gain a deeper understanding. Additionally, Senti is live on our website, so feel free to visit Apollo’s website and check out the Senti section, where you can interact with the tool yourself.

One of the most exciting ways we’ve tested Senti internally is by trying to trick the system—and let me tell you, it’s incredibly robust and very difficult to fool. So, you’re welcome to try it out later as well!

Moving on to the Next Innovation: Face Match

It seems like we’re experiencing some technical issues, but we’ll definitely conduct an RC (Root Cause Analysis) after this call to resolve them.

Now, let’s talk about Face Match—as the name suggests, this tool ensures that the KYC (Know Your Customer) details match the actual borrower.

The Challenge in Digital Lending

In digital lending, every loan application requires KYC verification. However, one of the biggest risks is ensuring that the borrower’s identity matches their submitted KYC documents. We need to prevent fraudulent cases where someone—say, Riksha—applies for a loan using the KYC details of Mikhil.

This type of fraud is especially common in digital lending, where physical verifications are not conducted.

How Face Match Solves This Problem

To tackle this, we leveraged our extensive dataset—spanning hundreds of thousands of loans—to develop a powerful AI-driven algorithm that accurately verifies whether the KYC belongs to the actual borrower.

Since we also collect selfies from borrowers, Face Match cross-references these selfies with the official KYC documents to ensure authenticity.

The Biggest Challenge: Aging KYC Photos

One major challenge is that KYC documents are often issued years ago, meaning a borrower’s appearance may have changed significantly. This makes it difficult for the human eye to determine if the document and the current selfie belong to the same person.

To solve this, we developed an advanced AI-powered face recognition system that factors in age progression, facial changes, and other variations to provide a highly accurate verification process.

Now, let’s jump into the Face Match demo to see it in action!

APOLLO FINVEST . (INDIA) LTD

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CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Video Alright! Today, we’re putting our Face Verification technology to the test.
We have two contenders:
Mikhil, as he is today
Mikhil—30 years younger (or at least, that’s what he claims!)
And just for fun, we’ve also thrown in a completely different person—someone
who’s definitely not Mikhil.
Let’s See Face Match in Action
First up: Let’s check if the system recognizes Mikhil’s younger self. Loading the
older picture...
✅Perfect! The system confirms it's a match—same person, just with fewer
responsibilities.
Next test: Let’s take this old photo of Mikhil and try to match it with the other guy.
❌No match! As expected, Face Match knows what it’s doing.
And that’s how Face Verification works—no fraud, no mistakes, just pure tech!
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
Next Up: Liveness Detection
This is another key defense against fraud. Here’s the problem—fraudsters often try
to bypass Face Verification by:
Uploading a pre-existing photo from their gallery instead of taking a real-time
selfie.
Using a borrowed or stolen photo—maybe from social media—to impersonate
someone else.
For example, if I wanted to commit fraud, I could obtain Diksha’s KYC details from
somewhere, grab a photo from Instagram, and try to fool the system into approving
a loan under her identity.
How Liveness Detection Stops This
To counter this, we built a powerful AI-driven tool that ensures the image:
✅Is a live photo, captured in real-time using the device’s camera.
✅Cannot be manipulated or uploaded from an external source.
✅Works seamlessly on both mobile phones and laptops.
Now, let’s check out the demo and see how this works in action!
Video Let’s test Liveness Detection. We already know this is Mikhil, but what happens if
we try to cheat the system?

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

First, let’s upload a photo we took from a photo album. Let’s see if the system falls
for it.
❌Flagged instantly! It knows this isn’t a real selfie—it’s just a photo of a photo.
Now, let’s do it properly. We’ll upload a real and clear photo of Mikhil.
✅Verified! No glare, no tricks—just a clear, real-time photo.
And that’s why Liveness Detection matters. It ensures every uploaded photo is
freshandlegitimate,not something pulledfromanalbumora screen.
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
So, as you can see, we’ve been making some very interesting advancements, using
AI in the risk world, right? As we go to the next slide, we'll talk about the Holy Grail,
which is essentially Supersonic. This is the credit risk algorithm that we've started
using internally. The idea behind it is that, given the advancements happening in
AI, one of the classic things we can do is build an extremely robust algorithm to
determine risk.
How are we doing that? One of the advantages and superpowers of Apollo is that
for the last 7–8 years, we've been obsessively focused on digital lending. And one
of the advantages of this is that we have a massive data set of attributes of
customers, and outputs in terms of whether a customer has paid on time, defaulted,
or missed payments. This massive data set allows us to build very accurate data
models to determine the risk of a new loan.
While we've always had this data, the advantage now is not only do we have a wide
database, but we also have a diverse data set. This helps us create different risk
models depending on the product type, whether it's a consumer loan, personal loan,
or MSME loan. We can also tailor these models to suit specific customer types, like
blue-collar, salaried, or self-employed customers. We can slice and dice the data as
needed to create models that match the specific product we're targeting.
One of the real cool things about Supersonic is that it's dynamic in nature. Here's
how it works: Every month, as repayments come in, the model adjusts itself. For
example, let's say the model is set to allow for a 2% loss rate. If repayments show a
higher loss rate, say 3%, the model automatically tightens itself to ensure that
future loans are stronger and more robust. This helps the portfolio stay balanced
and ensures that the overall loss rate stays around 2%.
What excites us about this is two things:
It helps us maintain a more robust, data-driven portfolio.
It allows us to underwrite customers that we previously rejected because they were
considered false negatives. With a stronger model, we can now accept a wider range
of customers, allowing us to scale up even further.

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Let’s move to the next topic. One of the most exciting things that AI has enabled us to do is move quickly. As you can see from the developments I’ve shared today, we were able to roll them out in just one quarter, and we expect this to accelerate.

Apollo has done close to 20 lakh loans to date. With this large data pool, we're now starting to see vertical integration in tech. This means that technology we used to rely on from external partners will now be brought in-house because we finally have the scale and data to do so. This is a huge advantage for us because it allows us to build tech that’s more cost-efficient, accurate, and secure.

What’s enabling us to move faster than we originally anticipated is that AI is even helping us write code. Currently, about 55% of the code that goes into our system is AI-driven. We expect this number to rise to 70-75% in the coming quarters, allowing us to move even faster while keeping our team compact.

As you can see, we’ve always done all this with a compact team of just 30 people, and we expect that to remain the same for the near future. The key factor in all of this is AI, which, combined with cheaper prices, allows us to move quickly and solve problems in a fraction of the time it would have taken in the past.

In terms of hiring, we're looking for young engineers who think in terms of AI. We’re not just looking for people who know how to use AI, but people who integrate AI into every part of their work. We believe that while AI may or may not take jobs, not knowing how to use AI will.

We’re doubling down on this approach, and the biggest thing we’re solving for is risk. From Supersonic to Face Match to Liveness Detection, these technologies were all developed with the goal of managing risk better.

With that, we’ll pause here and open it up for Q&A. Thank you so much for your patience. I know this wasn’t the smoothest presentation, but we’d love to take this opportunity to answer any questions you have for us. Investor My first question is, as I see our financials, our revenue has gone up but our net profit has gone down. So, what's the reason for that?

Okay, all right. And I have one more question. Since we do about 20% of lending with our partners, does that mean our partners will be using only our tech for those loans? For the rest (80-90%), they have to develop their own tech. So, my point is, what benefit do they get if they have to develop their own tech for the rest of the loans? I want to understand this better.

Also, I see on our website that we have six partners. Does this mean the number of partners has been reduced, because earlier there were many more, I believe?

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Mikhil
Innani,
Director
I think, you know, this is the way I would explain it. From our perspective, this is in
line with our expectations. One of the things you'll see is that from a provisioning
standpoint, the provisioning done in this quarter is quite high. The reason for this
is that the loan portfolio is maturing as well. Additionally, what I can do is have
Diksha elaborate onthis.So,I'llpassit ontoher.
Diksha
Nangia,
Director
Hi Puneet! Just to elaborate, as Mikhil said, it’s not just the provisioning; it's actually
primarily to do with the commission that we pay out to our partners. As you know,
we’re in a B2B2C model, so we partner with fintech companies and NBFCs, and
through them, we give out loans. Now, there is also their share of the profits or the
revenue that we need to give to them in the form of commissions, which we pay on
a monthly basis.
What happened this quarter is that the commission expenses are much higher. The
rationale for this is two-fold: One is that there was some provisioning we weren’t
doing earlier, but we’ve done it in this quarter. That’s one reason for the increase
in the commission expense. The other reason is that we ended a particular
partnership due to high APR caution from the RBI, and we moved to a term loan
arrangement with them. However, we ended one partnership from a co-lending
standpoint, and as a result, their entire FNF happened, and the commission was
paid out in this quarter. This has resulted in a significant increase in the expenses,
which you’re seeing in our financials.
However, as a shareholder, if you'd like to know what the true PAT is, I can assure
you that the PAT you see now is a true reflection of what it should be for Apollo,
considering the provisioning we hadn't done in the past.
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
Yeah, I mean, it’s not necessarily about being very honest. It’s a decision every
company has to make: whether they want to build or buy. But from a practical
perspective, I can tell you that if our partners like our technology, they’re happy to
use it across their ecosystem as well. So, it’s not necessarily that they’d only use our
tech for 10-20% of their loans and then go ahead and build something for the rest.
What we’ve seen is that they may use our tech for the 10-20% loans and then decide
to either use our tech across all their loan products or bring in other technology
partners for their other products. It depends on the specific NBFCs they’re
partnering with because they sometimes have their own compliance requirements.
For example, if NBFC-X is partnering with us for loans, they can use our technology,
but if they are partnering with another NBFC-Y, depending on the vendors NBFC-Y
has approved, they may use those vendors for the other loans. So, it varies from
partnership to partnership. However, what’s highly unlikely is that they would use
our tech for our loans and then develop their own tech for the rest.Yeah, I think in
general, I don’t expect Apollo to have as many partners as before. I wouldn’t expect
us tohave10+partners. Thereason forthisis that, post theRBI’s digital lending

APOLLO FINVEST

==> picture [146 x 138] intentionally omitted <==

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

guidelines, and the new restrictions they’ve imposed on APIs, we expect the
existing players who do well to scale up.
If you have a small partner—say, one who is less than 6-7 crores in size—the effort
we put into that partnership sometimes exceeds the amount of effort we put into
handling a partner that’s 5-6 times larger. So, our strategy has evolved to focus on
doing thorough due diligence on our partners. We ensure that their financials are
strong and that their loan portfolios are healthy, which usually happens when we’re
working with people who have demonstrated solid performance for at least two
years.
This has resulted in us partnering more with NBFCs. When we partner with them,
we can be extremely selective, ensuring that they meet our criteria. This is how we
think about our partnerships now—the goal isn’t to have a large number of
partners, but to have the best partners who meet our criteria. The filter to becoming
an Apollo partner is the highest it’s ever been.
Investor "I've noticed that our AUM has been increasing quarter after quarter. I wanted to
understand what the future plans are for raising additional capital."
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
"Got it. Thanks for that question. As you pointed out in the presentation, fortunately
for us, capital doesn't seem to be a constraint at this stage. The biggest thing we
want to solve for right now is ensuring that we take capital from the right set of
people at the right price. As you would have observed, we have a massive amount
of sanctions—upwards of 70 crores. But the key challenge is having the right people
on our debt cap table, people who have the ability to finance us with significant
amounts while raising it at a price that allows us to maintain good names, given our
business model.
So, these are the factors we focus on. It's not just about scaling or generating
revenue. It's about making sure we're doing it while maintaining a positive return
on equity (ROE). That's been one of the company's biggest mantras, and it's
something we always remain conscious of."
Investor "What is the reason behind the increase in impairment when it comes to quarter on
quarter?"
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
"So, see, our loan book has also increased, right? So that's one prime reason why
you'll see an increase in our impairment as a function of the absolute amount.
Essentially, that's the main reason. And obviously, from an ECL provisioning
standpoint, Apollo's policies are quite conservative. But if I had to specifically
highlight the reason, it's because our AUM has also gone up. So, the required
provisioning that we've had to do as of the quarter."
Investor "I want to ask this: Over the next 2 years, what do you think are the 3 to 5 most
important things that Apollo wants to focus on? What are the most important things
that we are prioritizing as a company?

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Another question, Mikhil, is that I don’t fully understand the math behind the AUM
and the net sales number. Could you explain it in a very simple way? For example,
we have 85 crore AUM, and our net sales number is around 8 crores this quarter.
How do we extract 8 crores of sales out of an 85 crore number?"
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
"I think probably if I had to kind of, you know, I think, you know, going off literally
the theme of, you know, today’s presentation, I would just, you know, if I had to give
you, like, 2 takeaways. Right? It would probably be, like, number one is, you know,
scale up while keeping, you know, sensible unit economics, you know. That’s
number one, and number two, do it very, very efficiently from, you know, from a
tech, you know, and, you know, cost perspective, right? And I think that’s where
basically AI comes in. Because, you know, I really believe that AI is going to be
transformational, you know, honestly, for most industries, but especially for us,
both when it comes to being efficient in operations and, at the same point in time,
tightening up risk, right? Which is obviously the most important thing in the
business. So that’s the two biggest takeaways I would take, you know, like, I think,
if you look at our trajectory as well from a growth perspective, I think in the last 12
months, we’ve more than doubled our AUM, you know, essentially, and we’re
hoping for that momentum to continue. But, at the same point in time, you know,
we’ll be very, very cautious to keep an eye that, you know, the unit economics are
making sense. Because, obviously, when we are scaling up, one of the challenges
ends up becoming that, you know, you want to obviously borrow capital to scale up
and really go up high in terms of AUM. But we have to keep a very sharp eye in
terms of what is the cost of borrowing for us, right? And, you know, keeping all the
systems basically very, very efficient to be able to basically extract name and ROE,
right? So I think these are the two big themes that you should expect for us, you
know, at least over the next 12 to 18 months.
Further for the next question, are you saying, what is the connection between
revenue and AUM? Yeah, how do you calculate it? I mean, is it like we are extracting
interest out of the, of course, it contains fees and commission and interest, and all
other things, but if you could explain it in a more easy way, that would be helpful
for me.
Perfect, I mean, essentially, you know, picture you can add on, but, you know, to me,
at least, it’s a combination of, you know, broadly, just two things. One is, it’s interest
income, you know, that we’re generating on the capital that we’re lending. And I
think second is, you know, essentially fees for the technologies that, you know, APIs,
that our partners end up using. So, a combination of these two things ends up
typically giving us, you know, the revenue number, right? Anything else you want
to add? No, I think that’s pretty much it, right. Whatever revenue is generated when
you give out the loan, be it your interest or processing fee. And for Apollo, the
additional revenue point per loan ends up being the API revenue that we make."

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Investor Good morning. My question is: When can we have a full-fledged co-lending
arrangement with our partners, or when can we expect to scale up our partnership
with the current set of partners? Most of our existing partnerships have already
ended.
Additionally, most of our co-lending partnerships have concluded due to the new
RBI guidelines. Therefore, our company will engage in full-fledged lending with a
new set of partners.
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
The thought process for us is definitely aligned with co-lending. One of the key
aspects we focus on, especially from a term loan perspective, is evaluating
companies with a long-term vision. You are right—when the RBI introduced
changes from an APR perspective, we reassessed these companies accordingly.
Every term loan we have provided has been with the objective of establishing a
long-term partnership, whether through co-lending or a Business Correspondent
(BC) model. The goal is to form sustainable partnerships rather than have short-
term exposure for just six or twelve months and then exit. Such an approach is not
beneficial for anyone involved.
The reason we opted for term loans initially is that most fintechs in the ecosystem
were reevaluating their strategies. Many of them were offering high-APR loans, and
when the RBI intervened and restricted such lending, these companies had to
recalibrate their risk assessment models and identify what portion of their
portfolios could still generate profitable outcomes under significantly lower APRs.
At this stage, we have identified a set of companies that we believe will perform
well in this new regulatory environment. My expectation is that, within this quarter
or the next, we will establish stronger, long-term partnerships with these
companies—whether through co-lending, the BC model, or another structure. The
ultimate objectiveis to buildlastingrelationships beyond just term loans.
Investor The numbers may reflect in this quarter, or it could take a couple more—perhaps
2, 3, or even 4 quarters.
However, we still do not have a specialized vertical lending approach. Currently, we
are engaged in mass-market loan lending without a focused underwriting strategy
that provides deep insights into individual borrowers. This lack of specific
borrower profiling makes it challenging to scale confidently.
While we rely on our technology to detect certain data points, such as PIN codes
and other borrower-related information, we still lack in-depth insights into
individual borrowers. This limits our ability to make highly confident lending
decisions at scale.

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

Is there anything currently in the pipeline to address this? Also, do we have any
printed materials or cards available?
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
I wouldn’t say 2, 3, or 4 quarters—I would be expecting results either this quarter
or the next.
Our area of expertise is pretty clear. Our focus is definitely in the unsecured lending
space, specifically for ticket sizes below ₹2 lakhs. In fact, we are highly concentrated
in this segment. Sometimes, we may even be too concentrated, as we focus solely
on digital lending and unsecured loans under ₹2 lakh. However, this clarity in focus
has allowed us to make significant advancements.
Because of this focused approach, we have been able to process over 15-20 lakh
loans, and the data collected has enabled us to build incredibly robust risk models.
This remains our core focus and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
Even when it comes to term loans, we have been very clear in only lending within
the digital lending space. We have not extended term loans to businesses outside
this segment because we do not want to take unnecessary risks in such a dynamic
environment.
One of the key things to note about Apollo is our cautious approach. When the
digital lending guidelines were introduced, we significantly reduced our AUM. In
this business, there is no reward for taking unnecessary risks. A poorly managed
loan book can be permanently damaged, making it difficult to gain trust from
lenders in the ecosystem.
Our primary objective is to build a high-quality, long-term loan book. We will never
push for growth if we lack confidence in a particular area. That confidence comes
from understanding that digital lending in India is still in its early stages, which is
why we see such dynamic regulatory actions from the RBI. Unlike traditional
lending, where regulatory changes are infrequent, digital lending undergoes
constant updates—sometimes as frequently as once a quarter. The RBI itself is
trying to understand and shape the rules of this evolving space.
From our perspective, every time we see significant regulatory action from the RBI,
we will not chase growth for the sake of growth. Instead, we will ensure the
direction is clear, the ecosystem has absorbed the changes, and there is a profitable
and sustainable path forward from a portfolio quality perspective.
Over the past 12 months, we have demonstrated this approach by doubling our
AUM. This growth is a direct result of our confidence in the space, which has
strengthened as the RBI continues to clarify its regulations. Many of the regulatory
actions taken were expected—for instance, restricting APR lending above 100%.
These were foreseeable changes, and we positioned ourselves accordingly.

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

As a result, despite regulatory interventions, our AUM continues to grow, and we
expect this trend to continue in the coming quarters.
Investor Actually, I just want to ask—are we partnering with any supply chain finance
fintech partner or any vertical-specific lending partner?
You mentioned that while working with pharmacies, many medical practitioners
seek loans, but no one can underwrite them due to a lack of clear information about
the borrower. I am thinking in those terms, not about mass lending or the
technology perspective—Ialreadyknow thatis well-established.
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
Yeah, I mean, honestly, we are constantly evaluating different spaces. From our
perspective, we do have ideas about which sectors could be interesting, given our
backgrounds. However, the way we prefer to operate is by identifying players who
have already demonstrated success in a particular space—meaning they have
completed at least a couple of loan cycles successfully.
One of the challenges of working with startups is that many present compelling
stories about their underwriting capabilities. But for us, it only makes sense to work
with those who have proven their ability over 2-3 loan cycles while maintaining a
high-quality portfolio and sensible unit economics.
Whenever we find such opportunities—whether in the sector you mentioned or
any other, such as the restaurant industry or ride-hailing platforms like Ola and
Uber—we remain open to specialized, verticalized lending, just as we have done in
the healthcare space. The key question is always: Can we find indisputable evidence
that the direction is viable and that the potential partner is the right one to
collaborate with?
That’s how we approach these decisions. Trust me, we have evaluated most, if not
all, of the well-established fintechs and NBFCs in the digital lending ecosystem.
Whenever we identify a strong player, it is highly likely they have some association
with the broader investor network.
Additionally, when it comes to supply chain finance or any new vertical, our
approach is to test the waters first before fully committing. If we decide to enter a
completely new segment, we would likely start with an indirect approach—such as
providing term loans to companies in that space—before gaining deeper insights
and eventually establishing a more direct presence.
Investor And lastly, do you have any AUM trajectory in mind for the next 3–4 quarters?
Where do you envision Apollo standing in that timeframe?
Mikhil
Innani,
Director
Yeah, I think, as a rule, we don’t typically provide specific numbers internally.
However, one thing we’ve stated in the past is that we do see growth, and we’ve
demonstrated that over the past few quarters. Going forward, there are two key
things I can share:

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APOLLO FINVEST

. (INDIA) LTD

CIN: L51900MH1985PLC036991 REGISTERED OFFICE: 301, Plot No. B-27, Commerce Centre, Off New Link Road Near Morya House, Andheri West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400053 Email Id: [email protected] Contact No. 022-62231667 / 68 Website: www.apollofinvest.com

We are focused on growth. That’s one takeaway you can have.
We want to grow in a manner that is highly sensitive to the financial costs we incur,
especially in terms of the cost of the loans we take. Additionally, we aim to do this
very efficiently, leveraging AI wherever possible.
Our philosophy is really centered on prioritizing Return on Equity (ROE) first and
growth second. In the lending business, there’s no real value in growing at an
unsustainable ROE. If your ROE is lower than FD rates, then there’s no point in
being in that business. This is something we fundamentally believe in.
Management All right, it looks like those are all the questions we had. Just to quickly touch upon
something someone asked during the Q&A: We’ll be sharing and uploading the
recording on both the Bombay Stock Exchange website as well as Apollo's website.
If you have any further questions, feel free to drop us an email, and we'll be happy
to get back to you.
Thank you so much for joining today. We really appreciated the opportunity to chat
with you. Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye!