Kewal Handa is a seasoned business veteran and he will guide the company to drive its next phase of growth
Bengaluru, NFAPost: BharatPe, India’s largest merchant payment company announced the appointment of Kewal Handa as an Independent Director.
Formerly associated with Union Bank of India and Pfizer, Kewal Handa will be joining the Founders – Ashneer and Shashvat, Jitendra Gupta (ex PayU) and Micky Malka (Ribbit) on the Board of BharatPe. He will be mentoring and advising BharatPe on its overall business strategy as it expands across markets and product categories.
With demonstrated leadership and excellence in guiding companies to scale up its positions, Kewal Handa has diverse experience in Finance, Commercial, Strategy and Business Development, Corporate Affairs etc.
He was the Managing Director of Pfizer Limited, India from 2005 to 2012. Kewal Handa has also been Independent Director at ING Vyasa Bank. Accorded with various national and international awards, his induction to the Board is in line with BharatPe’s effort to strengthen its leadership team to aggressively capture market opportunities.
The company has been launching new product and services aimed at enabling merchants to grow their business. It has recently announced its plan of disbursing loans of Rs. 1,000 crores to small merchants across the country in this financial year.
BharatPe Co-Founder & CEO Ashneer Grover said he is pleased to welcome Kewal Handa on board and his guidance and banking experience will accelerate financial services business to the next level.
“In the current scenario, we are aggressively strengthening our lending and payment offerings, and his insights will be of great value in shaping the right strategies for the brand as we scale up. We are confident that Kewal’s diverse experience in building global businesses will help us create a credible and profitable business,” said BharatPe Co-Founder & CEO Ashneer Grover.
On his appointment, Kewal Handa said he is delighted to be part of BharatPe which has already carved its niche in offering digital payment and lending solutions to merchants.
“BharatPe is already the 4th largest UPI player in India and largest lender in SME segment.The new normal has augmented the demand for contactless payments in the country and I believe it is the best time to capitalise on it,” said Kewal Handa.
BharatPe has been bolstering its leadership team with hires from the industry. In the recent past, the company has made key hiring at its CXO level including Suhail Sameer as the Group President.
BharatPe was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 with the vision to make financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants. BharatPe launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code, first ZERO MDR payment acceptance service, and first UPI payment backed merchant cash advance service.
In 2020, post-Covid, BharatPe also launched India’s only ZERO MDR card acceptance terminals – BharatSwipe. Currently serving over 50 lakh merchants across 35 cities, the company has grown business 30x in 2019 and is a leader in UPI offline transactions, having processed 5 crore+ UPI transactions a month (annualized TPV of US$ 5+ Bn).
The company has already facilitated disbursement of over Rs. 500 crores to its merchants since launch. BharatPe has raised US$ 142.5 million till date. The company’s list of marquee investors includes Beenext, Sequoia, SteadView Capital, Ribbit Capital, Coatue Management LLC, Insight Partners, and Amplo.
