Ezetap appoints interim head Byas Nambisan as new CEO

Cellphone payments service provider Ezetap Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd has appointed its former finance chief and interim chief executive officer Byas Nambisan as CEO.

In a press note, the company said the decision to make an internal elevation was arrived after the company had interviewed several external candidates for the vacancy.

Nambisan was earlier involved in various functions such as finance, operations, engineering and sales.  

Nambisan had taken over as the company’s interim CEO in November last year, following the exit of his predecessor and co-founder Abhijit Bose, who went on to become the India unit head of Facebook-owned WhatsApp

In the statement, Nambisan said that achieving break-even, besides technological and geographical expansion goals, was part of his near-term responsibilities.

Holder of an MBA degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Nambisan had joined Ezetap in 2014 as its finance chief. Before that, he had served nearly 20 years at Intel Corporation, exiting the company as its senior financial controller.

Bengaluru-based Ezetap was founded in 2011 by Bose and Bhakta Keshavachar.

The Ezetap solution turns any merchant’s mobile device into an intelligent point of sale that is able to read all cards and complete a full spectrum of financial transactions, including credit card sale, real-time bill payment and ATM cash withdrawals or deposits.

Ezetap has managed to raise more than $51 million so far. In 2015, the company raised $24 million in its Series C round from existing investors Social Capital, Helion Advisors, Berggruen Holdings, Horizons Ventures and others. Some of its other investors include American Express, Prime Venture Partners, and Capricorn Ventures (Jeff Skoll Group).

In the last-known fundraising in 2017, the company secured $16 million (Rs 102 crore) in a round led by US-based JS Capital Management, the investment fund of Jonathan Soros.

The company claims that it enables digital payments for more than 200,000 merchants and users across India and processes $135 million in transactions monthly.

Ezetap recently acquired payment startup FortunePay to boost its payment processing infrastructure for banks.