BharatPe appoints Vijay Aggarwal as its chief technology officer

Aggarwal, who in his most recent stint was head of engineering at digital wealth management startup Syfe, was previously vice president of technology at online supermarket Grofers.

Aggarwal, who in his most recent stint was head of engineering at digital wealth management startup Syfe, was previously vice president of technology at online supermarket Grofers.

The appointment comes as BharatPe looks to accelerate new product development soon after it closed a $75 million investment led by Coatue Management and Ribbit Capital.

Aggarwal, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, has over 13 years’ experience working with Ibibo, Bharti SoftBank and other enterprises.

“We process half a billion transactions annually already and are releasing new products every fortnight. Vijay brings in the required expertise and network to build a world class tech team at BharatPe to help us scale 10X from here,” said Ashneer Grover, co-founder and CEO at BharatPe.

Grover himself was a former employee of Grofers, where he served as the chief financial officer before starting up BharatPe.

Aggarwal would lead BharatPe’s upcoming technology centre in Delhi, Grover said.

“The astounding pace at which UPI and BharatPe have been growing organically is unprecedented in the entire FinTech space. The challenge of taking digital banking to the small merchants is both motivating and exciting,” Aggarwal said in a statement.

Aggarwal’s appointment comes at a time when BharatPe is looking to build its own lending business, with plans to deploy around $70 million into an NBFC arm that the company is currently awaiting approval for.

BharatPe claims it has already facilitated loans of Rs 100 crore to 20,000 merchants and is looking to lend to around 300,000 merchants in the next two years.