Financial Inclusion Funding Narrative and Unit Economics — Adviser

The mandate

The finance strategy committee needs to decide whether its capital narrative is supported by the economics of the financial-inclusion business. The recurring question is where growth creates durable value and where it depends on capital assumptions that investors may challenge. Advisory work will test that relationship without arranging financing, recommending investments to customers or approving regulated product decisions.

Four monthly days cover a capital narrative challenge, operating economics review, committee discussion and preparation. Strategy committee attendance is included; a complete ad-hoc paper receives an initial response within four business days. Bengaluru sessions are hybrid, with source owners present when a metric or forecast requires explanation rather than unsupported narrative refinement.

The advisory term runs from 19 October 2026 to 18 July 2027. The finance strategy chair considers renewal using evidence of changed capital choices and improved internal challenge capability. A live fundraising round, formal diligence opinion or financing execution request requires its own scope and commercial agreement; the retainer does not promise investor access.

For the funding narrative, the adviser has no line authority over finance or business teams and no executive responsibility for capital execution. Management owns forecasts, disclosures and approved investor communication. Recommendations must identify what the evidence supports, what remains assumed and which regulated or specialist judgement is outside the adviser's remit.

Concurrent non-competing work is permitted with disclosed capacity. An investor examining the same funding opportunity, a competing inclusion-business retainer or compensation tied to a capital introduction creates a conflict requiring disclosure. Success fees, investor brokerage and customer investment advice are excluded so that the adviser can recommend a narrower narrative or delayed capital deployment independently.

What you will own

• Challenge the capital narrative against source-backed operating economics, distinguishing reach, activity and durable contribution before the committee treats growth measures as evidence of financial sustainability.
• Probe capital-use assumptions through collection, service cost and liquidity dependencies, asking which benefits remain contingent on unapproved financing or unsupported changes in customer behaviour.
• Test management measures for consistency across financial and operating reporting, identifying definitions that could mislead investors even when individual figures are arithmetically accurate within their sources.
• Shape funding alternatives around coherent downside and deployment scenarios, keeping strategic preference separate from guaranteed investor demand, approved terms or executable financing commitments.
• Press sponsors to record specialist and regulatory reliance where product economics depend on decisions outside finance, preserving the boundary of the advisory conclusion and management accountability.
• Review committee responses and approved narrative changes, retaining assumptions and reconsideration triggers so an accepted story does not become detached from evolving operating evidence.

Candidate qualifications

• Show director-level strategic finance or investor-evidence judgement in fintech, financial services or comparable inclusion-related operations. Describe a narrative narrowed or challenged because economics did not support its claims. Candidates must identify their own analysis and the executive authority retained, rather than relying on fundraising introductions or communication polish alone.
• Demonstrate financial reporting, unit-economics and liquidity understanding through a redacted bridge between operating measures and capital need. Explain an assumption that changed the recommended deployment or funding sequence. The adviser must distinguish business finance from regulated lending, customer investment advice and formal valuation or diligence opinions outside the term.
• Evidence advisory independence, including a recommendation not adopted because management preferred a stronger growth claim. Show how uncertainty and the response were recorded without rewriting history later. The committee needs bounded challenge and honest evidence limitations, not a guarantee of financing success or an implied ability to direct the finance organisation.
• Establish fifteen years of relevant experience, confidentiality and a reliable four-day monthly allocation. Disclose same-opportunity investor work, competing-business retainers and contingent remuneration, particularly capital-introduction fees. Provide a source-backed recommendation that revised a funding claim or deferred deployment, retaining downside assumptions and management's response even when a stronger growth narrative would have been commercially easier to support.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 10 October 2026. Mandate reference PCT-ADV-2026-IND-31.