Movers And Shakers Of The Week [15-20 June]

We bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

SoftBank portfolio company PolicyBazaar’s lending unit, PaisaBazaar has reportedly let go of over 1500 employees to cut costs amid falling demand in the lending industry. The company has seen its demand fall by almost 90% and the employees are serving a month’s notice period. The reports added that nearly 100 employees along with some senior executives have been absorbed into PolicyBazaar.

Sachin Bansal’s fintech ambitions seem to have hit a minor hurdle after Navi General Insurance laid off 40 employees and re-examined its future course. The layoffs have reduced Navi’s team of 163-odd employees by a fourth. Bansal informed the team that the company is relocating to Bengaluru from Mumbai by December 31, 2020. The layoffs include the general insurance division’s CEO and other senior and mid-management officials of one of its insurance products COCO.

Delhi-headquartered BharatPe’s chief business officer Pratekk Agarwaal has exited the firm. According to his LinkedIn profile, Agarwal left the company in May 2020. Reports added that Agarwaal has been replaced by Nishant Jain, who joined last month from food delivery firm Zomato, where he was chief sales officer.

Bengaluru-based edtech platform Unacademy has appointed Sujeet Kumar, cofounder of Udaan, to its board of directors. With this announcement, the organisation brings his deep operational experience in building Flipkart and Udaan to propel the growth of Unacademy. Kumar is also an investor in Unacademy and has been a mentor for the organisation since its inception. As a member of the Board of Directors, Kumar will be advising on operational growth and business strategies.  

Here are other movers and shakers of the week:

PayU India Appoints Shantanu Preetam As CTO

Payments solutions provider PayU India has appointed Shantanu Preetam as Chief Technology Officer. In his new role, Preetam will be leading technological innovations and engineering at PayU. He will be based out of Bengaluru.

With an experience of over 23 years in building software products and driving digital transformation strategy, Preetam has led and mentored global teams to build highly scalable cloud platforms like omnichannel and ecommerce platforms, transportation systems enabling fulfilment and last mile, and CRM systems for Fortune 100 companies and startups.

Prior to his new role, he was at Walmart where he played an integral role in building core ecommerce systems, driving end-to-end cloud transformation and facilitating growth.

In India, PayU offers payments gateway solutions and serves more than 350K merchants with over 70 local payment methods.

DeepFlux Appoints Aviral Mathur As Cofounder

Delhi-based SaaS startup DeepFlux has appointed Aviral Mathur as cofounder who will take charge of overall product strategy and roadmap across all solutions.

With over 14 years of experience in the field of AI, he was previously working with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in their Data Science Consulting team – GAMMA. Mathur helps design and implement AI platforms and solutions which deliver superior outcomes for clients. He has led large engineering teams to build and deliver such platforms and has high aspirations for the team at DeepFlux.

DeepFlux provides a suite of technology products that help in product launch and Optimisation of Digital Campaigns with clients in the entertainment sector and clients like Disney, Fox, OYO and Woodland.

Avendus Wealth Management Appoints Executive Directors

Mumbai-based Avendus Wealth Management has appointed Pankaj Fitkariwala and Ashvini Chopra as executive directors, with effect from June 2020.

Fitkariwala has joined as the COO (chief operating officer) of Avendus Wealth. With over 21 years of experience across operations, technology, risk and compliance by delivering superior customer journeys, coupled with his deep understanding of risk and compliance, will help Avendus in constructing a next-gen platform for wealth management. 

Prior to this, he was working with IIFL Wealth Management Limited as Senior Managing Partner and was responsible for various functions including operations, technology, legal, compliance, risk, accounts and finance. He has also worked with Barclays Bank, ABN AMRO Bank and Kotak Mahindra Group. 

Chopra was previously working with Bennett Coleman & Co Limited (BCCL) and led the family office vertical including lifestyle management, travel planning, tax planning, tax filings, governance administration, personal accounts management, investment management and family expenses management.

With a career spanning 27 years across the family office management, private banking and capital markets, he has worked with over 130 large and small families, providing tailored solutions to complex issues such as trusteeship, succession and estate planning, and family office administration.

At Avendus Wealth, he aims to further bolster its family office proposition, encompassing areas related to financial planning, risk management, taxation, compliance, family governance and strategy, enhancing its capability to offer high-quality, bespoke family office solutions to clients.

Stay tuned for the next week’s edition of movers and shakers!