Episode Details

This fintech platform disbursed ₹18,000 crore+ in loans and serves over 3 crore users across India.

In this episode, we sit down with Dipesh Karki, Co-founder & CPTO of LenDenClub, to unpack how a Nepali founder built one of India’s largest peer-to-peer lending platforms by focusing on systems, scale, and execution.

Born into a middle-class family of teachers in Khotang, Dipesh began his journey with a scholarship to study engineering in India. Instead of looking West, he chose to build in India leveraging proximity, market depth, and a rapidly maturing fintech ecosystem.

Today, LenDenClub has enabled ₹17,000–18,000 crore in loans, serves 30+ million customers, and is preparing for a potential IPO positioning itself as India’s first listed P2P lending platform.

• Why “Nepal is a small market” is an incomplete way of thinking
  
  
• What India’s startup ecosystem gets right about scale and regulation
  
  
• How unsecured lending works when borrowers have little or no credit history
  
  
• How AI is used to assess “intent to pay,” not just credit scores
  
  
• How LenDenClub navigated RBI regulation while others struggled
  
  
• Why India can be a real alternative market for Nepali founders
  
  
• Why Nepal needs to move from exporting labor to building creators and systems
  
  

This episode is for founders, builders, students, policymakers, and anyone curious about how large-scale platforms are built, regulated, and sustained in the real world—especially from South Asia.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:35 Why Nepal Feels Like a “Small Market”

04:05 Nepali Identity Beyond Political Borders

07:28 Choosing India Over Nepal for Education

09:20 First Job in Delhi & Early Career Reality

12:05 Moving to Mumbai & Entering High-Stakes Engineering

14:35 Birth of LenDenClub

16:35 ₹17,000+ Crore in Loans & National Scale

18:05 Serving 30 Million Customers

19:35 The Problem with Shadow Lending

21:15 Why Regulation Was Non-Negotiable

25:35 How AI Changed Credit Decisions

27:05 Judging “Intent to Pay” with Data

30:35 The Future of Banking Without Banks

35:35 Why Unsecured Lending Matters

38:35 India vs Nepal: Regulation & Ease of Doing Business

41:35 Why Building in India Is Easier Today

47:35 Staying Nepali While Building in India

51:54 Nepal Between the World’s Two Biggest Markets

58:35 Why Civic Sense Holds Countries Back

1:06:35 Turning Native Skills into Global Products

1:24:35 The Only Limitation Is the Mind

1:34:35 From Labor Economy to Creator Economy

Want to join us live in the studio as an audience member?

Fill out this form: https://forms.gle/xZi8yptyoxkkc6aa8 

✉ Reach out to us at partners@doersnepal.com

🎧 Listen on audio platforms: 

https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-32f7s-19cc50b

🎤 Host: Anup Ghimire

Founder of Doers Nepal 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/anup-ghimire-9366aa5a/ 

👥 Guest

 Dipesh Karki

 CTO @ LenDenClub

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepeshkarkee/

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🎬 Production Partner: Viewfinders Production

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This episode is strengthened by Hama Steels and insured by Himalayan Everest Insurance