BharatPe finds second group president in Gautam Kaushik

Payments and financial services startup BharatPe on Thursday said it has appointed a second group president. Gautam Kaushik joins the fintech startup from loyalty programme platform Payback India, where he served as CEO and managing director. 

At BharatPe, Kaushik will lead the payments vertical, which includes UPI, card acceptance, loyalty programme as well as BharatPe XtraIncome card. He is also expected to bring in new banking partnerships, a statement said.

Also an angel investor in BharatPe, Kaushik will report directly to CEO Ashneer Grover, the statement said. 

“I’ve worked with Gautam previously at AMEX and have known him for eight years. Gautam is also an angel investor at BharatPe. I am confident that he is the best person to lead our payments vertical,” Grover said. 

Former managing partner at OTP Ventures Suhail Sameer was appointed the first group president in August 2020. He is reportedly responsible for building the organisation, merchant network, business and revenue. 

In January, the company had appointed Sumeet Singh, former partner at law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Co, as general counsel and head of corporate strategy.

Founded in 2018 by Grover and Shashvat Nakrani, BharatPe has raised over $142.5 million in equity capital across multiple rounds, according to data sourced from VCCEdge. The company bagged $75 million in a Series C funding round in February 2020 led by Coatue Management. It also raised nearly $40 million in venture debt last month. 

BharatPe works with small shop owners to allow QR-code based payments as well as card payments through its point of sale (PoS) machines. In January, the company claimed to work with over 50 lakh merchants across 65 cities. It also offers working capital loans to its merchant partners and claims to have disbursed Rs 200 crore every month.