BharatPe Rejigs Top Brass; Sandeep Indurkar To Head Payments

SUMMARY

While Rijish Raghavan will now oversee the fintech’s device business, its loyalty platform Zillion will be helmed by Kohinoor Biswas

The three new appointees will report to BharatPe’s interim CEO and CFO Nalin Negi

The reshuffle comes amid a slew of top-level exits at the company in the past one year, including those of CEO Suhail Sameer, CPO Ankur Jain, and CBO Nishant Jain

Fintech giant BharatPe has undertaken a major reshuffle of its top management across payment and lending verticals.

The startup has elevated its chief business officer (CBO) for banking and alliance, Sandeep Indurkar, as the CEO of payment vertical, PTI reported.

Meanwhile, CEO of rewards platform Zillion (previously Payback India), Rijish Raghavan, will now helm the fintech startup’s device business. Raghavan’s role will be taken up BharatPe’s head of consumer lending arm Kohinoor Biswas, the report said.

A BharatPe spokesperson confirmed the rejig with Inc42 but declined to offer any comment.

The three new appointees will report to BharatPe’s interim CEO and CFO Nalin Negi. As per the report, there has been no management change in the merchant vertical and Negi will continue to lead the unit.

It is pertinent to note that the fintech major has three major verticals – payment, lending and merchant services.

Founded in 2018, BharatPe offers a slew of consumer-facing services like lending (PostPe), 12% Club (P2P lending and investments), and Zillion.

Backed by the likes of Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital, Coatue, and Insight Partners, BharatPe has raised $820 Mn in funding to date, as per Inc42 data.

However, the fintech giant has been mired in controversies in the last two years amid a public spat between its board and former MD Ashneer Grover.

Both the parties have filed a bevy of legal cases against each other, and even approached an arbitration panel. The startup has also accused Grover of allegedly undertaking dubious transactions worth INR 81 Cr.

Amid all this, the fintech major has witnessed a slew of top-level exits over the last two years, including that of Suhail Sameer, who took over the reins of the company as the CEO after Grover’s departure. In October last year, chief product officer (CPO), Ankur Jain, left the startup to float his own venture.

Its chief business officer (CBO) Nishant Jain also resigned in September 2023, while the CBO of the merchant lending division, Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl, also quit the fintech startup in August 2023.

Other senior-level executives, including CTO Vijay Aggarwal, head of consumer products at PostPe Nehul Malhotra, CPO of lending and consumer products Rajat Jain, and VP of technology Geetanshu Singla, also bid adieu to the company in the past one year.

However, things appear to be on the mend as the fintech startup has made a slew of new appointments in the past one year. It claimed to have turned EBITDA positive in October 2023.

The Delhi NCR-based fintech unicorn saw its net loss jump 12% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 926.9 Cr in FY23. Meanwhile, operating revenue soared more than 125% to INR 1,028.9 Cr in the fiscal year ended March 2023 as against INR 456.8 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

The rejig also comes three months after BharatPe announced the final close of its $100 Mn debt round that saw participation from InnoVen Capital and Credit Saison.

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