Paytm appoints Varun Khullar as head of partnerships for its Payments Bank

Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform brings on board former ITC executive Varun Khullar for its Payments Bank business. Varun will lead the partnerships division and will be responsible for building relationships with potential partners such as insurance companies, banks and non-banking financial institutions.

Prior to joining Paytm, Varun, an alumnus of IIT Madras and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, worked with medical devices firm Boston Scientific Corporation for about three years.He has also worked with consulting firm McKinsey & Co and tobacco-to-hotels conglomerate ITC.

Speaking on his appointment, Amit Sinha, Vice President, Paytm said, “We are looking at building a robust leadership team for our Payments Bank business over the next 3-4 months. Varun’s professional career, his rich experience and demonstrated dynamism in an evolving business eco-system is the perfect combination for us at this juncture. We’re pleased to have him on board to head the partnerships division of our upcoming business.”

Speaking on joining Paytm, Varun said, “Paytm’s proposed Payments Bankis in sync with the national vision of a cashless economy with greater financial inclusion for all. It is indeed an honour to be a part of this vision. I’m thrilled to come on board at one of the fastest scaling m-commerce and payments platforms in the country and look forward to a mutually successful tenure at Paytm.”

Varun’s appointment comes three weeks after Paytm brought Amazon India’s Vikas Purohit on board in a similar leadership position for its Payments Bank. The company aims torecruit 3,000 people for the business and has also enlisted the services of management consulting majors, Ernst & Young and McKinsey& Co to help in the rollout.