Former Housing.com CFO Ritesh Jain floats online lending startup with two others

Ritesh Jain, a former chief financial officer at Housing.com, has quit the real estate portal to launch an online lending platform along with two others.

FlexiLoans, the new venture, disburses working capital loans to small and medium-sized companies, co-founder Manish Lunia said.

The third co-founder is Deepak Jain, a former investment banker at Axis Capital. Ritesh Jain, Deepak Jain and Lunia are chartered accountants and alumni of the Indian School of Business. The trio is joined by Abhishek Kothari, an IIT Bombay alumnus, as an adviser.

Housing CEO Jason Kothari confirmed Ritesh Jain's departure. "Ritesh has been a valuable contributor during Housing's transformation, and we are excited and supportive about his passion to start a new innovative entrepreneurial venture in the fintech space," Kothari said in response to a VCCircle query.

FlexiLoans, operated by FlexiLoans Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was incorporated in January and began operations in April. The online platform manages customer sourcing and underwriting. Since starting operations, the firm has disbursed 100 loans.

Lunia said the platform would disburse loans up to Rs 5 lakh. "We go to businesses that have a large set of channels. We don't mind going to online-offline channels as long as the business provides us with an introduction to the retailer or a vendor. We have tie-ups with 15 national e-commerce platforms," he said.

Prior to founding FlexiLoans, Lunia was assistant vice president of group corporate finance at the Aditya Birla Group, where he was involved in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, structuring and fundraising activities. He also worked at Tata Teleservices Limited for over four years.

Deepak Jain was a vice president at Axis Capital, where he advised corporate clients on capital market transactions across sectors including real estate, financial services, information technology, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, power and infrastructure.

Ritesh Jain was vice president of finance at Housing.com, operated by Locon Solutions Pvt. Ltd, and served as the CFO from May 2015 to October 2015.

Housing.com has seen a senior-level churn over the past year since the ousting of co-founder and CEO Rahul Yadav last year in July after a public spat with investors. Jason Kothari was appointed the CEO of Housing in November 2015 while Mani Rangarajan was brought in as chief financial officer and Nikhil Rungta was made chief marketing officer.

Of the 12 IIT-Bombay alumni who founded Housing.com in 2012, only three remain with the company—Amrit Raj, head of digital marketing; Jaspreet Singh Saluja, who heads data operations; and Snehil Buxy, chief product officer.

Four co-founders had left the startup in 2014. In March this year, co-founder and former board member Advitiya Sharma resigned to start on his own. The next month, co-founders Abhishek Anand, Ravish Naresh and Sanat Ghosh quit the realty portal to start their own venture.

*This article has been modified to include Housing CEO's comment.

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