Exclusive: Paytm’s President and financial services head Amit Nayyar quits

Amit Nayyar, President at Paytm, has resigned from the company after serving for 20 months according to three people aware of the development. This is the second major departure from the IPO-bound company after its Chief Human Resource officer Rohit Thakur put in his papers last month.

“Nayyar resigned last month and Paytm’s board has accepted his resignation. He’s currently serving his notice period,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. According to the sources, Nayyar has put in papers due to personal reasons. 

Nayyar has been leading Paytm’s foray into financial services and several verticals including lending, insurance, wealth management, broking among others. According to his LinkedIn profile, he also spearheaded corporate development and merger & acquisitions for the Noida-based group.

He is also on the board of the group’s five subsidiaries: Paytm Money, Paytm Insurance Broking, Paytm Financial Services, Paytm Insurtech and Urja Money.

Nayyar couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

A Paytm spokesperson said that “as a company, we do not comment on personnel changes. We have built an incredible management team with some of the most reputed names in the industry, who are focused on driving growth at Paytm”.  

Nayyar left Arpwood Capital to join Paytm in August 2019. Previously, he also had a seven-year stint at Goldman Sachs. Nayyar used to report directly to the company's founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The resignation of Nayyar before Paytm’s potential IPO is surprising, according to people who have been tracking the AliPay-backed company. It’s worth noting that the firm had shuffled its board of directors early this week. Douglas Lehman Feagin of Ant Group had replaced the group’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jing Xiandong in the company's board. 

Michael Yuen Jen Yao from Alibaba Group and Todd Anthony Combs of Berkshire Hathaway have also resigned from its board. Meanwhile, Saama Capital’s managing partner Ash Lilani has also joined its board as an independent director.

According to a Reuters report, Paytm appears all set to file its draft red herring prospectus or DRHP next week to raise $2.3 billion at a valuation of $24-$25 billion.