WhatsApp Pay's India Head Steps Down Amid Series Of Top-level Departures

Vinay Choletti, head of WhatsApp Pay India, is the fourth senior executive to quit this year, announcing his exit from the Meta-owned company after working there for four months.

“As I move on to my next adventure, I strongly believe that WhatsApp has the power to phenomenally transform digital payments and financial inclusion in India and I look forward to seeing it leverage its potential in the coming years,” Choletti wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday.

Ajit Mohan, the head of Meta in India; Abhijit Bose, WhatsApp’s India chief; and Rajiv Aggarwal, director of public policy at Meta India, left the social media company at different times previously to pursue other opportunities. Meta did not respond to a request for a comment on Choletti’s exit.

Choletti took over as the head of WhatsApp’s payments division after incumbent Manesh Mahatme left to join Amazon. Before his stint at WhatsApp, Choletti led Amazon’s small and medium business payment division.

Choletti, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, is leaving as WhatsApp ramps up investments in its payment service across India.

The National Payments Council of India (NPCI) allowed WhatsApp to have a payment service in November 2020. However, it had prescribed a cap of 20 million users. The messaging app got permission to raise its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) user base to 100 million in April this year.

WhatsApp has over 487 million users in India, while there are over 15 million users on WhatsApp's small business app. According to reports, WhatsApp Business’ India revenue may reach $1 billion next year. It recently rolled out its platform for Reliance JioMart, its first global initiative.

India is the largest user base for Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram: the three major social media platforms owned by Meta Platforms Inc. The ad revenue of Facebook India online services, the main business of Meta in India jumped 74 per cent in the year ended March 2021. The company reported its gross ad revenues for Rs 16,189 crore in a regulatory filing.