BharatPe elevates Nalin Negi as CEO

BharatPe CEO Nalin Negi

Payments startup BharatPe on April 16 elevated Nalin Negi as the chief executive officer, more than a year after he took over as the interim CEO.

Negi, who joined BharatPe as the chief financial officer (CFO)in 2022, was named the interim CEO in January 2023 following Suhail Sameer’s exit. He had been serving in both the positions ever since.

“His extensive experience in the fintech industry and the growth witnessed for BharatPe under his leadership, makes him a natural choice to lead the company,” BharatPe board chairman Rajnish Kumar said in a statement.

Before joining BharatPe, Negi was SBI Card CFO for more than 10 years, leading the credit card giant towards its IPO in March 2020. He has also worked with GE Capital.

The fintech firm is looking for Negi’s replacement as a CFO.

“Nalin as interim CEO and CFO has been instrumental in showcasing substantial growth and strategic advancements across key business segments. Under his leadership, BharatPe recorded 182% increase in revenue from operations in FY23 and clocked October’23 as the first EBITDA positive month,” the company said in a statement.

“We are confident that Nalin’s deep knowledge and passion to drive innovation will continue to strengthen our position as India’s most preferred fintech company, empowering millions of MSMEs in their digital journey," Kumar said.

The announcement of a full-time CEO comes a week after the fintech firm rejigged senior management of its payment and lending unit verticals. The company has promoted its banking and alliance Chief Business Officer Sandeep Indurkar as CEO of payment vertical -- Resilient Payments Pvt Ltd.

Rijish Raghavan will now handle device business of the company and Kohinoor Biswas will handle Zillion, a multi-brand loyalty program, in place of Rijish Raghavan. All three will report to Negi.

However, there has been no change in the merchant app vertical.

Negi said that the company aims to focus on sustained profitability. Bharatpe, which claimed to have turned Ebitda positive in October 2023, is yet to file its FY24 numbers.

As per the firm, its annualised revenue surged past Rs 1,500 crore, registering a growth of 31 per cent from FY23.

It currently has a network of over 1.3 crore merchants, processing payments of annualized Transaction Processed Value of over Rs. 1.7 lac crores, besides facilitating loans worth Rs 14,600 crores in partnership with NBFCs since its foray into this segment in late 2019.

“I am excited and honoured to take on this new role at BharatPe. Going forward, our strategic focus will be on sustained profitability, scaling lending businesses, and launching new merchant-centric products. We are committed to building on the strong foundation, fostering financial inclusion and deliver value to our merchants, partners, and stakeholders.”

BharatPe has raised over $583 million in equity till date with its marquee investors include Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India), Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, and Tiger Global.