Payments startup Freecharge has announced that former Axis Bank executive Mohit Jain will be its new Managing Director and CEO. Jain will be replacing Siddharth Mehta, who recently resigned from the position at the Axis Bank-owned firm.
Jain worked at Axis Bank for over 16 years and was previously managing commerce banking segments for the private sector bank. He also held roles as the head of Bharat Enterprises and Institutional Businesses for Axis Bank. At Bharat, Jain worked towards scaling up the corporate agri/MSME business in semi-urban rural markets as part of the bank’s broader Bharat Banking agenda, according to his LinkedIn profile. In his most recent LinkedIn post, Jain expressed his excitement about starting a new role as MD and CEO at Freecharge.
Founded by CRED founder Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon in 2010, Freecharge is a digital payments provider offering services such as mobile recharges, bill payments, and more via the UPI network and its native wallet. In 2015, eCommerce platform Snapdeal acquired Freecharge for around $400-$500 million. In 2017, Axis Bank acquired the digital payments platform. Freecharge boasts more than 100 million users in India and reported an operating revenue of INR 287 crore in FY22. However, the payments app’s net profit fell to INR 23 crore during the year from INR 37 crore in FY21.
Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) returned Freecharge’s application for a payment aggregator license and directed it to reapply within 120 days.
The company has not yet issued any statements regarding the matter. Jain’s appointment comes at a critical time for Freecharge, as the company looks to reapply for the license and expand its user base in India’s increasingly competitive digital payments market.
