BharatPe nominates Partha Pratim Sengupta on the Board of Unity Bank

A career banker with 36 years of experience across banking and finance sector

Ex- MD and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank

Gurugram, June 19, 2023: BharatPe, India’s leading name in the fintech ecosystem, today announced the appointment of Partha Pratim Sengupta as its nominee on the Board of Unity Small Finance Bank (Unity Bank), where BharatPe and Centrum Financial Services are shareholders. Mr. Sengupta is a career banker and a veteran in the banking and financial services industry, with 36 years of experience across renowned public sector banks including State Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank.

In his last stint, Mr. Sengupta was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) for close to 2.5 years. During his stint at IOB, he led the turnaround of the Bank, with growth across all business segments. He had spent over 3 decades in the State Bank of India (SBI), where he held multiple roles during his rich and enterprising journey. His last designation at SBI was Deputy Managing Director and Chief Credit Officer at the Bank. Mr. Sengupta has also held multiple Board positions during his professional journey. He was the Whole Time Director & Officiating Chairman of the Board at Indian Overseas Bank, Nominee Director of IOB in Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Limited, and Nominee Director of SBI across a number of companies including Yes Bank, ARCIL, National e- Governance Limited (NeSL) and West Bengal Financial Corporation.

Speaking on the appointment, Mr. Rajnish Kumar, Chairman of the Board, BharatPe, said, “I would like to congratulate Partha Pratim Sengupta for his appointment on the Board of Unity Bank. Partha, with his rich experience and in-depth understanding of various verticals of banking including corporate and retail banking, MSME and international banking, NPA and risk management and compliances, will be able to provide valuable guidance to the Management team of Unity Bank. Additionally, his vast experience as a Board member across banks and financial institutions will help Unity Bank craft a robust short and long-term strategy with focus on growth and enhanced customer experience. This is our biggest investment and we are committed to build it as a new-age, digital first Bank- that appeals to customers across age groups. In the last 1.5 years, Unity Bank has built a good foundation and I am confident that it will emerge as one of the most credible banks in the banking industry in the times to come.”

Unity Bank has several Banking industry stalwarts on its Board including Amitabh Verma (former Joint Secretary – Banking & retired IAS officer), Sandip Ghose (RBI veteran), Basant Seth (Former CMD Syndicate Bank and Deputy MD - SIDBI), Subhash Kutte (Former Chairman, RBL Bank), David Rasquinha (Former MD – Export Import Bank of India) Renu Basu (seasoned Sales and Marketing leader), along with Jaspal Singh Bindra (Executive Chairman – Centrum Group). Inderjit Camotra is Unity Bank’s MD & CEO.

About BharatPe

BharatPe was founded in 2018 to make financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants. In 2018, BharatPe launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code, the first zero MDR payment acceptance service. In 2020, post-Covid, BharatPe also launched a card acceptance terminal – BharatSwipe. Currently serving 1 crore merchants across 400+ cities, the company is a leader in UPI offline transactions, processing 300 million+ UPI transactions per month (annualized Transaction Processed Value of over US$ 24 Bn in payments). The company has already facilitated the disbursement of loans totaling close to INR 80B+. BharatPe’s POS business processes payments of over US$ 3.5 bn annually on its machines. BharatPe has raised over US$ 583 million in equity till date. The company’s list of marquee investors includes Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo, and Sequoia Capital. In June 2021, the company announced the acquisition of PAYBACK India (Rebranded to Zillion), the country’s largest multi-brand loyalty program company with 100 million+ members. In October 2021, the consortium of Centrum Financial Services Limited (Centrum) and BharatPe, was issued a Small Finance Bank (SFB) license by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). BharatPe also entered the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) segment with the launch of postpe in October 2021. postpe has over 8 million downloads and an annualized TPV of close to INR 50B+. In January 2023, BharatPe Group received an in-principle nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator. Recently, the company announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Trillion Loans, a renowned NBFC (Non- Banking Financial Company).