As a director, Mahatme saw Amazon Pay, a team of senior product, engineering and business development leaders on his LinkedIn profile show
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WhatsApp has hired an Amazon executive to lead its payments business in India, two sources told Reuters that the Messenger service is set to expand in the fast-growing sector.
Manish Mahatme, who has worked on Amazon Pay for almost seven years, will soon join WhatsApp’s payment service, sources said on Friday.
WhatsApp and Amazon Pay were not immediately available for comment. Mahatme declined to comment.
With more than 500 million users, WhatsApp counts India as its largest market, where it is the latest entry into India’s digital payments sector, which PwC and Indian industry body ASSOCHAM say will be in place by 2023. The value is 135 billion dollars.
WhatsApp received a much delayed approval for the launch of its payment system in India last year, but so far its rollout has been capped by regulators at 20 million users.
But it has huge ambitions and a deal by Facebook last year to invest $ 5.7 billion in the digital unit of Jio Platforms, a billionaire Mukesh Ambani, that would allow WhatsApp to offer payment services to millions of mom-and-pop stores.
Also read WhatsApp Payments | how to get started?
“Mahatme is a hardcore paid professional, the missing link to WhatsApp,” one of the sources said.
Amazon Pay is continuously offering online bill payments to users and also serves as a digital wallet-service on the e-commerce giant’s India website.
As a director, Mahatme oversaw a team of senior product, engineering and business development leaders at Amazon Pay, his LinkedIn profile show.
WhatsApp also plans to deepen its partnership with banks to bid for financial plans such as pensions and insurance, its India head Abhijeet Bose – payment industry veteran – as of last year.
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