Rapyd appoints ex-Uber executive Mahesh Muraleedharan to accelerate the Fintech company's growth in India
SINGAPORE, Oct. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Fintech-as-a-Service platform Rapyd has appointed Mahesh Muraleedharan to lead its operations in India. In his role as Country Manager, Mahesh will be overseeing Rapyd's business operations in India from Bangalore and expand the company's footprint in the market.
The move signifies Rapyd's growing commitment to South Asia and its strategic focus on growing in India, one of the most prominent and dynamic markets across all of Asia Pacific. The company is looking at enabling Indian platform companies and innovators to develop new services as they grow regionally and globally, as well as to help global companies expanding into India to tap into the country's large and growing millennial population, while simplifying access to the revolutionary changes in the Indian payments landscape.
"India provides immense growth opportunities for Global and Regional companies across many industries, from eCommerce to logistics. There are tectonic shifts happening in the Indian Payments landscape right now, driven by the development of UPI (India's national real-time payment system), the emergence of strong local wallets, and a decade-long focus by progressive regulators to drive adoption of digital payment methods. We feel that Rapyd can play an important role in helping Indian innovators to grow, as well as to connect this visionary ecosystem to the rest of the world," says Joel Yarbrough, VP Asia Pacific, Rapyd.
"Mahesh Muraleedharan has been one of those people that really moved the digital needle in India, and I believe he will be a great person to drive Rapyd's business in India to new heights through partnerships with businesses looking to grow their sales internationally, dialogue with leading financial partners, and engagement with the mature startup community to accelerate new solutions in the market."
Mahesh is a veteran of India's startup ecosystem who brings with him hands-on experience of funding, launching, nurturing and scaling early-stage operations for tech-enabled businesses at Uber, Oyo, UrbanTouch, and VentureEast.
Mahesh was Uber India's first hire in 2013, and after launching the company in six cities across India, was appointed General Manager for Uber, taking the business from zero to over a million trips per day during his tenure, working across multiple functions, including supply operations, new product launches and customization, brand building, hiring and team building, regulations and policy affairs.
After Uber, Mahesh worked with seasoned investors to support Indian startups at VentureEast, a Tech-focused VC fund based in Bangalore, and helped Oyo go from a Zero-to-One journey to set up the company's business in Singapore.
"I have been in the technology space for most of my career, and seen the evolution of the Indian ecosystem. The common thread over the last decade of growth is the lack of one single touchpoint. A small business from India looking to receive payments for furniture pieces from an Indonesian buyer would not be able to receive the transaction in his PayTM account, neither would the Indonesian consumer be able to make the payment via his Doku wallet that he uses everyday. The company is looking to challenge this status quo, and allow people to make and receive payments with the local wallets or bank accounts that they use everyday through the Rapyd Global Payments Network, a flexible network-of-networks that connects local payments providers across 100 different markets, and I am proud to be leading that charge in India. I believe this will truly provide the connection that was promised by digitalization," affirms Mahesh Muraleedharan, Country Manager, India at Rapyd.
Rapyd has been increasing its focus on the Asia Pacific region. The company announced in October 2019 that the Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted the Fintech-as-a-service provider the remittance licence in Singapore. Rapyd also announced its partnership announcements with OCBC Bank in Singapore and its collaboration with Hong Kong's TNG FinTech Group earlier this year.
Rapyd announced in October 2019 that the company received US$100 million in Series C funding, led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Tiger Global, Coatue, General Catalyst, Target Global, Stripe, and Entrée Capital.
About Rapyd
Rapyd helps businesses create great local commerce experiences anywhere. The world's most innovative ecommerce, technology firms, and marketplaces utilize our Fintech-as-a-Service platforms: Collect, Disburse, Wallet and Issuing to seamlessly integrate Fintech and payment capabilities into their applications. By accessing the Rapyd Global Payments Network, businesses can access over 900 locally preferred payment methods including bank transfers, e-wallets and cash in more than 100 countries. Now ecommerce, technology firms, and marketplaces can focus on growing new markets and reaching billions of consumers rather than building infrastructure. Investors include General Catalyst, Stripe, Target Global and others. For more information, visit www.rapyd.net
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