WhatsApp appoints Amazon executive to lead payments business in India

Manesh Mahatme brings with him 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments across Citibank, Airtel Money and Amazon

Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp has appointed Manesh Mahatme to lead the growth of its Payments business in India. As Director of WhatsApp Payments-India, Mahatme will focus on enhancing the payments experience for users, scaling the service offering and work towards contributing to WhatsApp’s vision of digital and financial inclusion in India.

Mahatme brings with him 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments across Citibank, Airtel Money and Amazon. He joins 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. He was also instrumental in building and scaling the payment experience and platform for Amazon India’s marketplace business.

“Manesh has been one of 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,” said Abhijit Bose, Head of WhatsApp in India. “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,”

Mahatme graduated from BITS, Pilani (Electronics Engineering) and from SP Jain, Mumbai (Management).

“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,” said Mahatme. “I am super excited to be a part of this growth story.”

WhatsApp said it is committed to providing its users with the best payments experience, in a secure manner. The company’s goal remains to offer payments as an added convenience to the users, and enable them to seamlessly send and receive money.