Aastamangalam Finance is a lender that works like a neighbourhood financier - it gives out money, mostly without asking for collateral, and then puts its energy into getting that money back. It was born in 1985 as Upasana Finance, a Chennai-based firm that later rebranded in 2022, and has always stayed a single, family-run shop without any subsidiaries or deposit-taking. The recurring approach is simple: lend to people and small businesses that banks often overlook, fund those loans largely through money borrowed from the directors themselves, and treat recovery as the main event.
Business segments
A single lending engine - almost entirely unsecured, funded by director loans, and run by one family - where making the loan is only half the job.
1. Unsecured lending: a bet on borrowers that banks skip
The company lends its own borrowed money to individuals and small entities, almost never asking for collateral, and earns by collecting interest until the loan is repaid.
- Loans on demand, not on a schedule - nearly all the money it lends is structured as “repayable on demand,” meaning the company can call the loan back whenever it chooses, rather than locking itself into fixed monthly instalments. As of March 2022, over 99% of its total loan amount carried no specified repayment period, which gives the company flexibility but also means repayment depends heavily on the borrower’s willingness and ability to pay when asked.
- Almost nothing is secured - out of a gross loan book of Rs. 7,385 Lakhs in March 2024, only Rs. 25 Lakhs was backed by tangible assets like property or equipment; the rest was given on trust. This pattern has held for years - in FY21, unsecured loans were Rs. 13.6 Crores out of a total of Rs. 14.1 Crores - so the business is fundamentally a credit-risk operation, not an asset-backed one.
- Funded by the family, not by banks - the company does not use working-capital lines from banks or take public deposits; instead, its lending pool comes from loans given by its own directors, which stood at Rs. 4,022 Lakhs as of March 2024. That is how a small NBFC keeps lending without a deposit licence: the people running it put their own money at stake.
- Recovery is the real business - management describes its focus as pursuing overdue receivables through both legal action and direct negotiation with customers, because in an unsecured book, a loan that is not collected is a loan that is gone. The company classifies its loans under RBI’s standard and non-performing buckets and sets aside provisions - for instance, 0.25% on standard assets and 10% on sub-standard ones - to absorb the hits when borrowers do not pay.
- A rural and first-time bet - the company sees its opportunity in rural and semi-urban areas where people lack access to traditional banking, offering flexible terms to first-time borrowers, small traders, and farmers who might not qualify for a bank loan. That is the trade-off: higher risk, but also less competition from formal lenders.
Group structure and partners
A single-entity, family-governed NBFC with no subsidiaries, no joint ventures, and a board where three of five directors are promoter family members.
- The company has no subsidiaries, associates, or joint ventures and operates as a standalone lending business with no other reportable segments.
- As of March 2025, the five-member board includes three promoter non-executive directors - Ms. Bhavika M. Jain, Ms. Khushbu M Jain, and Ms. Rekha M. Jain - who are mother and daughters, while the CEO and CFO, Mr. S Mohan Kumar Jain, is the spouse of Ms. Rekha M. Jain and father of the other two promoter directors.
- The company’s shares are listed on the BSE under Scrip Code 511764, and its registered office sits at No. 51 Hunters Road, Choolai, Chennai.
- It was originally incorporated as Upasana Finance Limited and received its NBFC registration from the RBI on 2 February 2007, with the name change to Aastamangalam Finance taking effect on 4 March 2022.