BharatPe hires former American Express CFO and PAYBACK CEO

By Edil Corneille

BharatPe, India’s financial services company for merchants, today, further bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Gautam Kaushik as the 2nd Group President in the company. Kaushik will be working closely with Ashneer Grover, Co-Founder and CEO, and leading payments (including UPI, Card Acceptance, BharatPe XtraIncome Card, Loyalty) as well as new banking partnerships for the company. Kaushik is the second senior level appointment announced by BharatPe in the new year. The company had announced the appointment of Sumeet Singh as the General Counsel and Head- Corporate Strategy in January 2021.

Gautam Kaushik is a seasoned professional with close to 2 decades of experience in multi-million dollar businesses in payments and financial services. Prior to joining BharatPe, he was the CEO & MD of PAYBACK India where he was leading the coalition loyalty program in the country. He has also held multiple roles during his 10+ years stint at American Express. Gautam has been the CFO of American Express – India Business and has also spearheaded many strategic initiatives for the organisation in India and New York, during his stint with the company. Before joining American Express, Gautam worked for Tata Strategic Management Group in Mumbai as a strategy consultant to key Tata Group companies. Gautam is a graduate in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai.

Ashneer Grover, Co-Founder and CEO, BharatPe said, “At BharatPe, we aspire to become India’s first true digital bank. I’ve worked with Gautam previously at AMEX and have known him for 8 years. Gautam is also an angel investor at BharatPe. I am confident that he is the best person to lead our payments vertical. He will be deepening our relationships with our banking partners. Also, it is important for us to build an engaged merchant base and I am confident that Gautam’s experience in building one of the largest customer loyalty program in the country will empower us to do so. I welcome Gautam in our leadership team and am sure that he will steer us to faster growth in 2021.”

Kaushik added, “BharatPe is the fastest growing FinTech startup in the country. The team has done phenomenal work in the past 2.5 years. I believe we enjoy a great opportunity to transform the financial services landscape for merchants across the country and I am looking forward to contribute meaningfully to this journey. Also, I see a huge disruption opportunity from loyalty standpoint for merchants.”