Paytm’s President & COO Bhavesh Gupta Resigns

Fintech major Paytm’s president and chief operating officer (COO) Bhavesh Gupta has stepped down from the company. 

Gupta cited personal reasons for tendering his resignation while Paytm attributed the move to a company-wide organisational restructuring. 

Gupta’s resignation was accepted by the fintech’s board during a meeting on Saturday (May 4) and will be effective from May 31. He will transition to an advisory role within the company and will “guide” Paytm’s growth initiatives until the end of the year. 

Commenting on his departure, Gupta said, “I have decided to take a career break due to personal reasons. I look forward to supporting Paytm in an advisory role. I am confident of Paytm reaching new heights given the depth of leadership in payments and financial services that has been built over the past few years”.

Meanwhile, the company has undertaken a major reshuffle at the top-level at its payments and financial services verticals. While Varun Sridhar has been appointed as the CEO of Paytm Services Private Limited, ex-Fisdom senior executive Rakesh Singh has been roped in as the CEO of wealthtech arm Paytm Money.

Both Sridhar and Singh will work directly under Paytm chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma and other senior management to fuel the “next phase of growth”. 

“I would like to thank Bhavesh for his contributions and his role in ensuring a smooth transition… I am also excited about the direction that we have taken under the leadership of Varun to expand Paytm’s role in deepening penetration of mutual fund and wealth management products in our country. I welcome Rakesh to Paytm wealth business where we are committed to build world class technology led wealth offerings to young Indians,” said Paytm founder and CEO Sharma.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Singh replaced Sridhar as the CEO of Paytm Money. 

Commenting on his appointment, Singh said, “Stepping into the role of CEO at Paytm Money Ltd is both an honour and a responsibility. As we aim to scale and position ourselves among the top brokers in India, our focus will be on ramping up acquisition and delivering stable, innovative products at a low-cost transparent price. Focusing on growing an already profitable operation with full compliance to SEBI regulations will be a top priority…”

On the other hand, Sridhar will now oversee Paytm Services, the newly floated subsidiary of parent One97 Communications centred around distributing mutual fund products and other wealth management products. 

With this, Gupta joins the latest senior-level executive at the company who has tendered his resignation. Last month, the CEO and managing director (MD) of the company’s troubled arm Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL), Surinder Chawla, also announced his departure from the company.

In April itself, Sumit Mathur also resigned as Paytm’s chief marketing officer (CMO) and joined sports nutrition company Glanbia Performance Nutrition as its country head- India and South Asia. In March, senior vice president of business at Paytm’s parent entity One 97 Communications, Praveen Sharma, also resigned after a four-year stint. 

The exits come as the company continues to grapple with the aftermath of the restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on its payments bank arm. In January, the central bank barred Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new users and from offering various services including UPI payments and deposits. 

Since then, the company’s stock has declined by nearly half and is down more than 41% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.

Shares of Paytm closed 0.38% lower at INR 370.20 on the BSE on Friday (May 3).

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