1. Business models and operating structures

This section enumerates every operating model an India-domiciled lending business can run, and for each one answers the questions that drive everything else: who has the money, who has the risk, who has the customer, who has the licence, and how do fees flow.

The seventeen models below are not mutually exclusive. A real business typically runs two or three at once — for example, the recommended configuration in this spec is own-book NBFC + co-lending with one bank/NBFC + SaaS/LSP fees from partner lenders. The point of listing them separately is to make explicit which obligations and which technology modules each model triggers, so a blended business can compose them cleanly.

How to read each model page

Every model page below follows the same template:

1. Money flow — who funds the loan, who receives repayments, who settles whom.
2. Risk owner — who carries credit risk on which portion of the loan, including any DLG/FLDG layering.
3. Borrower relationship — who the borrower contracts with, who the borrower thinks they are dealing with, who handles grievance.
4. Underwriting owner — who runs policy, who approves, whose risk appetite controls eligibility.
5. Collections owner — who does soft collection, hard collection, legal recovery.
6. Loan booking and repayments — which entity’s books the loan sits on, which account receives repayments, how reconciliation works.
7. Fees — what fees exist and who keeps each one (origination, platform, servicing, SaaS, DLG premium, etc.).
8. Regulatory risks — RBI Digital Lending Guidelines (DLG-DL), co-lending guidelines, KYC Master Direction, Fair Practices Code, FLDG/DLG cap, IT/cyber, outsourcing, KFS, recovery-agent rules.
9. Technology modules needed — what subset of the Section 3 module map the model triggers.
10. Integrations needed — what subset of the Section 4 vendor map is mandatory.
11. Unit economics — yield, fees, cost-of-funds, cost-of-credit, cost-of-ops, take rate, contribution margin shape.
12. Pros / Cons / Scalability.
13. Fit for SME working-capital, ₹20–50 lakh tickets, 60–180 day tenure, repeat borrowers — the explicit question this spec is biased toward answering.

The 17 models

The seventeen models cluster into four families:

Family	Models
Balance-sheet lending	Own-book NBFC; Managed credit / AUM; Secured vs unsecured; Term loans; Working-capital lines
Risk-shared lending	Co-lending (RBI CLM-1/CLM-2); LSP model with DLG; Loan participation
Origination-only / no-risk	Marketplace; DSA/origination; CA/Tally-led origination; Embedded lending; White-label platform
Ecosystem / collateral-light	Supply-chain finance; Invoice discounting; Dealer/distributor/vendor finance; Anchor-led ecosystem lending

Each is treated in its own page. A consolidated comparison matrix at the end of this section answers all template questions on a single scrollable table.

Recommended starting configuration

For an SME working-capital wedge with ₹30 Cr own book and ₹70 Cr+ co-lending:

1. Own-book lending via NBFC licence (or a licensed NBFC partner if licence is in progress) — see Own-book NBFC.
2. Co-lending under RBI CLM-1 with one bank or large NBFC as the senior partner — see Co-lending.
3. LSP fees under the Digital Lending Guidelines, from any partner lender that uses your origination and servicing stack — see LSP model.
4. CA-network and distributor origination as the primary acquisition channel — discussed in every relevant page below.

Other models (marketplace, embedded, white-label SaaS, full SCF programmes) become available as the platform matures, but they are not where the wedge is for an under-₹100 Cr book.

Sources

• RBI Co-Lending by Banks and NBFCs to Priority Sector, FIDD.CO.Plan.BC.No.8/04.09.01/2020-21, dated 5 November 2020. Available at rbi.org.in.
• RBI Guidelines on Digital Lending, DOR.CRE.REC.66/21.07.001/2022-23, dated 2 September 2022, with subsequent FAQs and clarifications.
• RBI Guidelines on Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) in Digital Lending, DOR.CRE.REC.21/21.07.001/2023-24, dated 8 June 2023.
• RBI Scale-Based Regulation for NBFCs, DOR.CRE.REC.No.60/03.10.001/2021-22, dated 22 October 2021.
• RBI Master Direction — Non-Banking Financial Company – Scale Based Regulation Directions, 2023, as amended.