WhatsApp appoints Manesh Mahatme as Director, WhatsApp Payments, India

WhatsApp has appointed Manesh Mahatme to lead its payments business in India. The company, in a statement, said that Manesh will lead WhatsApp Payments in India in the position of the Director. Further, he will focus on enhancing the payments experience for users and scaling the service offering. The company added that Manesh will work towards contributing to WhatsApp’s vision of digital and financial inclusion in India.

Manesh Mahatme brings 17 years of experience in digital financial services and payments. His previous stints included 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. At Amazon Pay India, Manesh 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 graduated from BITS, Pilani (Electronics Engineering) and SP Jain, Mumbai (Management).

The company, announcing the appointment said, “Manesh has been one of the key innovators driving the growth of digital payments in India over the last decade. His experience will help us maximize the impact and scale of payments on WhatsApp.”

“WhatsApp has immense potential to digitally empower people across segments. It will also help accelerate the Government of India’s efforts to drive financial inclusion through UPI and digital payments,” said Abhijit Bose. Bose, Head of WhatsApp in India welcomed Manesh to the WhatsApp India team. Payments on WhatsApp will play a significant partner in the country’s growth agenda. “It will make digital payments accessible to users across the length and breadth of India. I am super excited to be a part of this growth story,” commented Manesh Mahatme.

About WhatsApp Pay

The National Payments Corporation of India permitted Facebook-owned WhatsApp to launch its payment service, WhatsApp Pay, India in November 2020. Hours after NPCI’s announcement, the company also announced that it is rolling out WhatsApp Pay in India. Further, the feature is available on both Android and iOS.

WhatsApp would have launched much earlier in India. The company even began testing its payments service in India in February 2018, limited to one million users in the country. However, the social media giant had to put it on hold in August 2018 because of the pending regulatory approvals. The government was also concerned about its data storage practices like where would the financial data of the users go? The government had stipulated that the company must comply with Indian norms, including, complying with RBI's data localisation rules, setting up an office in India and the appointment of a grievance officer and formulation of a team in India.

After thorough discussions with the government, WhatsApp, in 2019, finally set up its data storage facilities in India. ICICI Bank was its partner in beta test in 2019.