Vistaar LFI (Bangalore) is the creation of two first generation entrepreneurs, who truly believe in supporting economic opportunity through credit provisioning to deserving rural and urban women entrepreneurs, to enhance their livelihoods and enrich their lives.

Vistaar follows a unique approach of first studying existing livelihood clusters and the cash flow cycles associated with these enterprises before finalizing the locations for its branches. The goal is to offer financial products that are aligned to meet the needs of the target livelihoods or micro and small enterprises, in terms of loan size, repayment schedules and tenor.

The company has been formed for the purpose of extending finance facilities to women entrepreneurs in non-farm businesses. The company’s target segment extends beyond traditional microfinance customers, at the bottom of the economic pyramid. It aims to cater to the missing middle segment, which is between the individual loan customers and the traditional microfinance customers.

www.vistaarlfi.com

Brahmanand Hegde, Founder and CEO

Brahmanand worked in ICICI Group between 1992 and 2007, in the Rural and Microbanking Group with a range of responsibilities covering Strategy to Execution. During this phase, he worked very closely with the microfinance sector, lending to over 80 MFIs in the country with an aggregate exposure of over Rs.3,000 Cr. In his initial years in ICICI, he worked for Project Financing in the Agri Business Division, responsible for implementing a special project, namely Agriculture Commercialisation & Enterprise (ACE) programme for USAID.

Brahmanand is a post-graduate with M.Sc from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore in 1983 and qualified CAIIB from Indian Institute of Bankers, Mumbai.

Ramakrishna Nishtala, Founder and COO

Ramakrishna worked in the Eicher Group for over 20 years, in a variety of sectors including commercial vehicles, tractors and auto components in various functions ranging from Sales and Marketing, Strategic Planning and Implementation. He was head of Corporate Strategy, and worked on re-structuring the Eicher Group’s portfolio.

Until recently, he headed the Microfinance Business of Fullerton India and was a core member of the team which conceptualized, developed and started the Microfinance Business from early 2008. He was responsible for coordinating the rollout of Fullerton India’s 800-branch network encompassing technology, people and premises.

He completed his Post Graduation in Industrial Engineering from NITIE, Mumbai in 1986 and graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.