WhatsApp on expansion mode, names Manesh Mahatme head for payments’ biz in India

Global technology giant Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Monday announced the appointment of Manesh Mahatme as Payments business head for India. The senior executive will be leading the company’s foray into the new digital payment business

Mahatme, who is named the director of WhatsApp Payments, is tasked to focus on bringing a better payments experience for users while scaling up the service offering to bring in digital and financial inclusion in India.

“We are excited to have Manesh join our WhatsApp India team. Manesh has been one of the key innovators driving the growth of digital payments in India over the last decade, and his experience will help us maximize the impact and scale of payments on WhatsApp,” Abhijit Bose, Head of WhatsApp in India, said in a statement.

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Mahatme brings along with him 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments across Citibank, Airtel Money and Amazon. He joined WhatsApp from Amazon where he spent close to seven years as Director and Board member of Amazon Pay India and led product, engineering, and growth teams.

According to Bose, “WhatsApp has immense potential to digitally empower people across segments and help accelerate the government of India‘s efforts to drive financial inclusion through UPI and digital payments.” 

While showing confidence in the new digital payments venture, the new payment company director Mahatme said, “payments on WhatsApp is uniquely placed to be a significant partner in the country’s growth agenda by making digital payments accessible to users across the length and breadth of India. I am super excited to be a part of this growth story.” 

According to WhatsApp, Mahatme was also instrumental in building and scaling the payment experience and platform for Amazon India’s marketplace business.  Meanwhile, WhatsApp in a statement said that it is committed to providing its users with the best payments experience, in a secure manner. WhatsApp’s goal remains to offer payments as an added convenience to the users, and enable them to seamlessly send and receive money.