Zaggle appoints Arundhoti Banerjee as COO; Mohammed Areff to lead Wipro in Middle East

Expense management platform Zaggle has appointed Arundhoti Banerjee as the chief operating officer (COO).

Banerjee will be responsible for business development and growth, customer success, user experience and engagement, operations and partnerships, the company said in a statement.

A graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, Banerjee headed digital cross-border payments business at Finablr and was a founding member at B2B fintech startup LoyltyRewardz.

In her other previous stints, she worked with marquee banks like Citi and ICICI Bank in the past.

“Arundhoti’s profound expertise in global fintech markets will accelerate Zaggle’s ability to bring value to its corporate customers, merchant partners, bank partners as well as our users.

Given Arundhoti’s deep domain expertise in fintech and digital payments, it is our firm belief that she will play an integral role in scaling, innovating and expansion to new markets,” Raj N, founder and chairman of Zaggle, said.

Operated by Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services, the company recent announced that it is venturing into neo banking with the launch of a new arm called ZikZuk. The first product to be rolled out by ZikZuk will be a credit card, dubbed Founders Card, focused on small and medium enterprise (SME) owners. It has also lined two more products for release -- a financial operating system and a multibank account aggregation facility.

Founded in 2011, Zaggle primarily facilitate employee rewards and recognition, channel partner incentives, employee benefits, online shopping and restaurant cashbacks.

At present, Zaggle is working with IndusInd, RBL and YES Bank and RuPay, VISA and MasterCard.

It claims to have 4,500 clients and over 4.5 million users.

The company has offices across 10 cities with over 200 employees.

Zaggle is backed by investors such as eYantra, Ventureast and Argonaut Ventures. 

Wipro appoints Mohammed Areff as country head & MD, Middle East

Bengaluru headquartered information technology services company Wipro has appointed Mohammed Areff as the country head and managing director for the Middle East.

Areff will focus on business growth, localization, brand building and transformational and modernization engagements with clients in key sectors across the region, according to a statement.

Areff will report to N.S. Bala, CEO, APMEA, Wipro Limited.

In his most recent role, Areff was the regional director of Microsoft Gulf. Prior to that, he has held leadership positions at NCR Corporation and Avaya.

“The Middle East has been a strategic focus for Wipro for over two decades, and even more so now with its growing demand for comprehensive digital transformation solutions, agility and scale, specialized technology requirements and innovation.

I am excited to welcome Areff and am confident that his leadership and deep understanding of this market will lead to greater customer success and enhanced business opportunities that support our growth ambitions in this region,” Bala said.