PayU India MD Jitendra Gupta quits; decides to stay with fintech for next gig

PayU India Managing Director Jitendra Gupta has put in his resignation papers after serving for about three years in the company. In May, speculation of his quitting the company was cropping up, however, Gupta had denied it.

Now, Gupta has confirmed the development to ET that has read the email sent by him to employees on leaving the company on June 27.

According to the report, country head of PayU Finance, Pallav Jain, is likely to replace Gupta. For the uninitiated, PayU Finance runs an alternative lending platform LazyPay, a brainchild of Gupta that is now being driven by Jain.

Announcing his departure, Gupta has said that he may come up with a new venture in fintech space.

Gupta was the co-founder and CEO of digital payment startup Citrus Pay that was later acquired by South African internet and media group Naspers in September 2016. Post acquisition, Gupta has been leading the combined entity, PayU India, as their Managing Director for consumer payments business in India.

Amrish Rau and Satyen Kothari were the other co-founders at Citrus Pay.

While Kothari got exit from Citrus, PayU India CEO Amrish Rau was replaced by the former co-chief executive of Reliance Payments and fintech veteran Anirban Mukherjee in January.

Rau was elevated to a larger role at Naspers where he is heading Financial Technology Partnerships and Investments for Naspers.

Gupta, along with Rau, has made over 20 investments in Indian startups. Some of his notable portfolio of companies include Cred, Healofy, Open, Cityfurnish, Bira 91, and Crofarm.

Several industry veterans and entrepreneurs have praised Gupta over his successful tenure at PayU and come in support for his next gig.