Saurabh is from Indore and holds B.E. from Mumbai University before completing post-graduation in Conservation & Livelihoods from IIFM (PFM 2013-15 batch). Post his graduation, he had 3+ years of work-ex in IT Consulting role and after IIFM, he had spent 8+ years at Northern Arc Capital, a leading NBFC where in as Director (Origination), he led Northern Arc’s client relationships in vehicle financing space and had also played an instrumental role in helping Northern Arc Capital becoming a leading debt financing provider in fintech lending space. More recently, he was SVP-Debt Capital Markets at Stashfin (a series-C stage, consumer lending company) where he spearheaded funding raising for the organization.
After 10+ years of super charged career, Saurabh is currently building ProsParity as its Co-Founder & CEO. ProsParity is a venture capital backed digital lending platform through which he & Anirudh (PFM 2013-15) are reimagining distribution of credit in electric mobility sector. They have recently raised a $2 million pre-seed funding round from global institutional investors.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurabh-khodke-80694240/
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. I was recruited by Northern Arc Capital (erstwhile IFMR Capital) as an Associate (Risk) through campus placement process. At Northern Arc, I got a great competitive platform to learn nuances of financial statements, lending, risk management etc. but more importantly, I got an opportunity to work closely with some of the sharpest professionals within the organization as well as in the NBFC industry. It was important to foresee the new opportunities in the organization and take the risk to move out of comfort zone to grab such opportunities and deliver on the responsibilities. It paid off well and I conversed the journey from an Associate to Director over the next 8 years at Northern Arc while building some strong relationships with people on the client side and within the industry. Working closely with some of the founders on my client side inspired me to contemplate building my own venture. It led me to take the call of moving on from Northern Arc and join Stashfin to get myself acclimatized with working in a startup environment before launching my own venture. Though I spent limited time at Stashfin, but the way I was able to deliver and contribute to the growth of the organization, gave me the confidence of finally launching my own venture. Finally, ProsParity was seeded in Nov-2023.
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. The most satisfying part of the current role is to see a direct correlation of my hard work into the outcomes. We are building the venture grounds up with the first principles and with strong bias for action and we believe we will be able to create our legacy in electric vehicle financing space in the long term.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers. What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles?
A. Biggest influencers in my career post IIFM have been the many people including leaders within Northern Arc, founding members on my client side, and others. While its cool to fancy their journey, but it is very important to carefully learn from their journey and customize some of them to your own situation or journey.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. My favorite memories are those of field visits to Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh, my 3-month internship with WWF in remote location of Arunachal Pradesh, the placement season where we slogged to ensure that we get the best organizations to the campus to yield the best opportunities for the batchmates. We also organized a rock show in IIFM, which is probably one of its kind where the band came from Mumbai to perform in our campus, and we managed to conduct the event independently through sponsorship. We won the Independence Day Cricket Match and getting MoM award was memorable.
Q. In hindsight, what was the biggest contribution or take away from IIFM that you think played a critical role in shaping you as an individual or professional?
A. There is no shortcut to achieve your goals in career or in personal life. We all need to work smart, work hard and in long term, hard work will beat the academic short comings in your life.
Q. The best friends / seniors /faculty at IIFM?
A. There is nothing better to build a venture together with Anirudh who was my batch mate and has been a friend since 10+ years now.
Q. As an alumnus, what is your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. An institute can just offer a good platform to launch you, but where you reach in next 10 years of your career will depend only upon your hard work, commitment to your goals and your ability to smartly find opportunities in your area of interest. IIFM campus provides enough opportunities to either learn and build career in forestry/development sector or in mainstream sectors as well. So have fun and make the most of your time at IIFM over the two years.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitment towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students?
A. We are contributing to IIFM by providing internship opportunities and eventually placement opportunities to brightest students from IIFM who are willing to work out in a fast paced organization. In addition, I am open to discuss and engage with alumni or students in case anyone wants any help/advice.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. Anirudh Dhakar (PFM-15), Ashish Thekkekara (PFM-08), Nitish Bharadwaj (PFM-14), Aryashilpa Das (PFM-14)