PayU Finance Reshuffles Top Deck, Deepak Mendiratta Elevated To CEO

In a leadership churn at Prosus-owned PayU’s NBFC credit arm PayU Finance, the company has promoted its chief risk officer Deepak Mendiratta as the new chief executive officer and also roped in former chief of DBS Bank Manish Kulkarni as its chief financial officer.

Moneycontrol reported the development first. Mendiratta replaces Prashanth Ranganathan, who put in his papers six months back to float a new fintech venture.

PayU Finance’s move follows the departure of its key leaders recently. For instance, in January, Mayuresh Kini, who served as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer, left the company.

Continuing its focus on India, PayU also promoted Anirban Mukherjee to global CEO in October last year. Mukherjee took over from Laurent Le Moal. 

Prior to that, Aakash Moondhra, the global CFO, also stepped down in September.

The development comes close on the heels of the restructuring plan across the board at the Dutch-listed technology investment firm. This plan aims to strengthen the firm’s presence in India and possibly prepare for a stock market listing.

To be sure, PayU agreed to sell its GPO business in H1 FY24, excluding Turkey and Red Dot Payments, to Rapyd, a fintech-as-a-service provider, for $610 Mn. After the sale, which is expected to close in the first half of calendar 2024, the core PSP business will constitute PayU India, Iyzico in Turkey and Red Dot Payments in Southeast Asia.

Earlier, Inc42 reported that PayU India intends to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with markets regulator SEBI in February for an initial public offering (IPO) of at least $500 Mn.

The company plans to list on the exchanges by the end of 2024, Reuters reported, adding that it has appointed Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America as the advisors for the IPO.

Additionally, the company aims to appoint at least one Indian investment bank for the transaction. The IPO will reportedly value the company between $5 Bn-$7 Bn.

Fintech major PayU saw its revenue surge 21% year-on-year (YoY) to $497 Mn in the first half of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from $412 Mn in H1 FY23, said parent company Prosus in its half-yearly financial report.

Consolidated trading loss narrowed 72.5% year-on-year to $22 Mn in H1 FY24 from $80 Mn H1 FY23. PayU India recorded total revenues of $211 Mn for the period under review, recording a 15% increase over the same period last year. Currently, India accounts for 48% of PayU’s core payments revenues.

Meanwhile, its competitor PhonePe recorded a revenue of INR 2,914 Cr in the financial year ended March 31, 2023, an increase of almost 77% from INR 1,646 Cr in FY22. Besides, Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm saw an over 31% jump in its operating revenue to INR 2,518.6 Cr in Q2 from INR 1,914 Cr in the year-ago period.

As per an Inc42 report, the potential market size for fintech in India is anticipated to reach $2.1 Tn by 2030. This growth is projected to occur at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% starting from 2022.