Religare Enterprises has appointed Gaurav Sharma as the Chief Technology Officer for its material subsidiary, Religare Finvest Limited, effective October 6, 2026.

Leadership appointment

Sharma brings close to 30 years of experience at the intersection of financial services and technology to his new role at Religare Finvest, the lending arm of Religare Enterprises. His appointment was approved by the Board of Directors of Religare Finvest Limited and communicated to the stock exchanges on October 6, 2026.

Professional background

Before joining Religare Finvest, Sharma served as Chief Technology Officer at IIFL Finance Group since July 2022. In that capacity, he led the group-wide mandate across technology, digital, and analytics for IIFL Finance, IIFL Securities, and 5paisa. During his tenure, he was instrumental in re-platforming the lending stack, modernising infrastructure architecture, and building an analytics and AI Centre of Excellence anchored on unified data and GenAI capabilities. Under his leadership, the organisation transitioned toward Kubernetes-led infrastructure, DevOps-driven operations, and open-source ecosystems.

Prior to IIFL, Sharma served as Group CTO at Poonawalla Fincorp from September 2021 to February 2022, where he led technology, digital, and analytics functions across NBFC, HFC, and insurance businesses. A key contribution during this period was institutionalising fintech and co-lending partnerships, including with YUBI, which helped accelerate sourcing and balance sheet velocity for the organisation.

Earlier, at L&T Financial Services from June 2018 to August 2021, he drove a multi-year enterprise transformation agenda across lending and corporate technology platforms. His work included LMS consolidation across multiple businesses, Salesforce-led loan origination transformation, enterprise data warehousing on GCP, complete data centre migration to cloud infrastructure, and implementation of SAP HANA-based finance systems.

Religare Enterprises Limited confirmed that its promoters have assured an infusion of ₹1,500 crore into the company to support seamless growth. This commitment was highlighted by the Board during the 42nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on September 24, 2026.

The meeting was conducted via video conferencing and other audio-visual means in compliance with Ministry of Corporate Affairs and SEBI circulars. Rajender Mohan Malla, Independent Director and Non-Executive Chairman, presided over the proceedings. The agenda included the adoption of audited standalone and consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended March 31, 2026.

Key resolutions and governance updates

Shareholders considered several ordinary and special resolutions during the virtual session. The re-designation of Arjun Lamba from Whole-time Director to Managing Director was a key item, passed as a special resolution. The company clarified that this change occurs at the same terms and conditions as his previous role. Additionally, Gurumurthy Ramanathan, who retired by rotation, offered himself for re-appointment.

Voting results and scrutiny

The consolidated scrutinizer’s report, submitted by Ankush Agarwal of MAKS & Co., detailed the voting outcomes facilitated through remote e-voting by KFin Technologies Limited. All four resolutions were carried out with the requisite majority.

For the adoption of both standalone and consolidated financial statements, 99.99% of votes polled were in favour. The re-appointment of Gurumurthy Ramanathan saw 99.88% votes in favour, while the special resolution for Arjun Lamba’s re-designation as Managing Director received 99.99% support. No invalid votes were recorded across any resolution category.

Auditor reports and compliance

The Chairman informed members that the Auditors Report on both standalone and consolidated financial statements for FY26 contained no qualifications. However, the Secretarial Auditors Report for the same period did have certain qualifications, which were addressed in the Directors Report. The meeting noted the presence of statutory auditors J.C. Bhalla & Co. and secretarial auditors PI & Associates.

Voting rights were determined based on equity shares held as on the cut-off date of September 17, 2026. The total voting capital comprised 34,47,33,742 Equity Shares. Preference shares were excluded from voting due to an ongoing NCLT matter regarding their status.

What the numbers show

The explicit mention of the ₹1,500 crore capital infusion assurance serves as a significant signal of promoter confidence and liquidity support. While the specific timeline for this infusion was not detailed in the proceedings, the public commitment at the AGM suggests a strategic move to strengthen the balance sheet. This comes alongside the confirmation that statutory audit reports remained unqualified, indicating no major discrepancies in the reported financial figures for FY26. The near-unanimous voting pattern further reflects strong shareholder alignment with the current management’s governance decisions.