PayU India CEO Anirban Mukherjee elevated to global CEO position

Prosus-backed fintech platform PayU on Tuesday announced the elevation of Anirban Mukherjee from chief executive officer of PayU India to the position of chief executive officer at PayU, as part of the company's transition towards an 'India-centric strategy'.

Mukherjee will be responsible for PayU's business operations. He will join the Prosus leadership team and report to Ervin Tu, Prosus and Naspers interim chief executive officer. Outgoing chief executive officer Laurent Le Moal will step back from the operational management of the company but will remain with Prosus and PayU in an advisory capacity, the company said in a statement.

"The synergy of the government's Digital India initiative and Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) forward-thinking regulation presents a significant opportunity for PayU to build a robust fintech franchise out of India. Prosus has been vital in PayU's growth, and we will collaborate closely with Ervin and the Prosus team as we enter the next phase of PayU's journey in India and Southeast Asia," Mukherjee said.

The company added that it was looking forward to opportunities in India's fintech landscape following the sale of PayU's Global Payments Organisation (GPO) to Rapyd. 

In August, PayU sold part of its financial technology business to Israel's Rapyd for $610 million. The deal allowed Rapyd, a fintech-as-a-service provider, to acquire PayU's GPO.

The deal excluded PayU's biggest payment market in India and its units in Turkey and Indonesia.

"Our focus is to fortify our position by placing our customers at the core of our operations, capitalising on India's immense fintech potential, and concurrently establishing the highest standards of governance, risk mitigation, and compliance to align with the regulator's progressive vision for India's financial ecosystem," the company said in a statement.
 

PayU's GPO business contributes around 30 per cent of its overall revenues. In FY23, total payment volumes for GPO tripled in five years. It grew 12 per cent year-on-year to $34 billion.

PayU said the company serves over 450,000 merchants, over 70 large banks through its paytech platform Wibmo, and more than 2 million customers with credit facilities in India.