PayU Finance elevates Deepak Mendiratta as CEO, former DBS bank chief is new CFO

In October, India chief Anirban Mukherjee was elevated to the role of the global CEO at PayU while he continues to spearhead India operations.

PayU Finance, the NBFC credit arm of Prosus-owned PayU, has elevated its chief risk officer (CRO) Deepak Mendiratta as the chief executive officer (CEO).

Former DBS Bank chief Manish Kulkarni has taken over as the chief financial officer (CFO) of the subsidiary, as the company rejigs roles at the top.

Mendiratta replaces Prashanth Ranganathan, who put in his papers six months back to start a new fintech venture.

The two appointments come close on the heels of top leadership exits. COO & CFO Mayuresh Kini left the company in January, according to a social networking site.

Kini and Ranganathan were directors on PayU Finance (LazyPay) board after the fintech acquired their lending startup PaySense in 2020.

India focus, IPO plans underway

The rejig runs parallel to leadership changes taking place across the board at the Dutch-listed technology investment firm, as the firm looks to double down on its India business and a potential listing, reportedly seeking a valuation of $6-6.5 billion .

In August, Prosus sold PayU’s Global Payments Organisation (GPO) to Israel-based fintech service provider Rapyd for $610 million to focus on operations in India, Turkey and Southeast Asia.

“We’re aiming to do so or make it at least listable by the second half of next year (2024),” interim Prosus CEO Ervin Tu said during an earnings calls in November. Tu is also the interim CEO of Prosus’ parent Nasper.

In FY23, PayU India reported a revenue of $400 million, a growth of 31 percent from the previous fiscal.

While the results for FY24 are awaited, its revenue from core payments business rose 15 percent to $211 million in the first half of the year.

This largely came from the existing merchants and payment processing stack Wibmo and its omnichannel business, with onboarding to new merchants remain paused.

The company said it is closely working with the authorities (RBI) on its reapplication for the payment aggregator licence and expects a resolution soon.

India accounted for 48 percent of PayU’s core payments revenues, as of September quarter.

The lending business (PayU Finance) grew by 23 percent to $43 million revenues in the H1FY24. The size of the company’s loan book expanded 66 percent to $338 million at the end of the period.

“The first half growth and trading margin were impacted by a process to revise regulations on first loss default guarantees (FLDG),” it said.

PayU India has also put breaks on its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) prepaid card business LazyCard, which added to the overall profitability within the group’s payment portfolio.

Leadership changes

Moving ahead with the India-centric strategy, India chief Anirban Mukherjee was elevated to the role of the global CEO at PayU in October while continuing to spearhead India operations.

His appointment came after predecessor Laurent Le Moal stepped down. His peer and global CFO Aakash Moondhra stepped down in September.

Mukherjee now directly reports to Tu, who took up the twin CEO role following the abrupt exit of long-time chief executive Bob van Dijk.