Freecharge MD and CEO Siddharth Mehta resigns to start new venture
- ByStartupStory | March 6, 2023
According to recent reports, Siddharth Mehta, the MD and CEO of payments startup Freecharge, which is owned by Axis Bank, has left the company to launch his own venture. Mehta had been appointed as the MD of the wallet startup for a four-year term starting from August 20, 2019, until August 19, 2023.
Mehta, who served as the Chief Business Officer at Freecharge for almost four years, left the company in February 2023, as per his LinkedIn profile. Prior to joining Freecharge in July 2018, Mehta had worked with Axis Bank for approximately three years. He took over the position from Sangram Singh, who joined Axis Bank after Snapdeal sold Freecharge to the bank in 2017. Singh subsequently left Freecharge to become the President of Indifi Technologies, a lending tech startup, before returning to Axis Bank as the Head of Commercial Banking Group.
Mehta and former Axis Bank and PayU executive Mohit Bedi launched their fintech venture, Gokiwi Tech Pvt Ltd, as per the Registrar of Companies (RoC) data. The company, which includes Stellaris Venture Partners’ Ritesh Banglani as one of its directors, was registered in November 2022. According to the RoC, Gokiwi’s activities are “auxiliary to financial intermediation, except insurance and pension funding.” Optimize for SEO: fintech venture, Gokiwi Tech Pvt Ltd, RoC data, auxiliary to financial intermediation, Ritesh Banglani, November 2022.
In 2015, Snapdeal acquired Freecharge, a digital payments provider founded by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon in 2010. However, Freecharge was later sold to Axis Bank, India’s third-largest lender, in an all-cash deal worth INR 385 Cr ($60 Mn). Freecharge offers various services, including mobile recharges and bill payments, through the UPI network and its native wallet. At its peak, Snapdeal had a valuation of $5 Bn and had acquired Freecharge for approximately $400-500 Mn.
When Axis Bank acquired Freecharge, it aimed to double its customer base, which had around 50 Mn users at the time. Under Axis Bank’s ownership, the digital payments app has grown significantly and even turned profitable. In FY22, Freecharge recorded INR 287 Cr in operating revenue, with profits dropping from INR 37 Cr to INR 23 Cr in FY21, according to a report by Mint. Freecharge was on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) list of payment aggregators applying for a license earlier this year. However, the RBI returned Freecharge’s application and directed it to reapply within 120 days.
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