In November 2025, three men from one family put their names on a petition to India's company-law tribunal. Harshvardhan Lunia, his father Raichand and his elder brother Anand were asking the court to remove the management of a company Lunia had built from his Ahmedabad home town.
Lendingkart was supposed to be the story of a self-made business family's son who did everything right. He was a chartered accountant and an ISB graduate. He had worked at HDFC Bank and Standard Chartered, on small-business lending, so he knew exactly how badly an Indian shopkeeper was served by the formal system. He then took a job in London and, as the YourStory profile frames it, walked away from it to go back to Ahmedabad. His family, one profile notes, was baffled.
Lendingkart was supposed to be the story of a self-made business family's son who did everything right.
He founded Lendingkart in 2014 with Mukul Sachan, an IIT and IIM alumnus. The pitch was simple: use data, not collateral, to lend working capital to small firms in days, not weeks. By September 2023 the company had more than 110,000 active loan accounts and about Rs 6,000 crore under management.
What almost nobody saw from outside was where control was drifting. Fullerton Financial Holdings, a Temasek unit and the lead investor, grew its presence. In 2022 the idea of buying a personal-loan fintech, Upwards, reportedly came from Fullerton, and Lunia, according to The Ken, became less involved in decisions as Fullerton's CEO and COO moved in.
Then came the fall. Valuation reportedly sank from about $700 million in May 2024 to under $100 million by October, and the company ran short of cash. Lunia was removed from management and the board while Fullerton raised its stake from 38% to 77%. Lendingkart Finance slipped from a Rs 60 crore profit in FY24 to a Rs 288 crore loss in FY25, with defaults eating Rs 523 crore. In FY26 revenue fell 62% to Rs 327 crore and the loss widened to Rs 333 crore.
His side of the argument is now before a tribunal, and his father and brother are in it with him.
For a founder, the lesson is hard and old. Taking the cheque of a large investor also means signing a story where you may not be the last chapter. Lunia built a company in his home city for a decade. The question that his petition poses, still unanswered, is what he actually kept.