After more than three years, Neeraj Arora has been reappointed as the additional director to the board of IPO-bound One 97 Communications that owns and operates online payments firm Paytm. Arora was associated with WhatsApp from 2011-18 while he was also serving Paytm as its beloved board member. He quit Paytm’s board in 2018 soon after Paytm Founder Vijay Shekar Sharma had criticized Facebook-owned WhatsApp’s UPI based payment model on Twitter.
Along with the reappointment of Arora, Mukul Arora, Partner, Paytm’s early investor Elevation Capital has resigned from its board of directors. Taking his position is Elevation Capital’s Operating Partner and Chief Financial Officer, Vivek Mathur, who is now the alternate director to Paytm’s board.
The appointment of Arora and Mathur happened just weeks after OCL reshuffled its board, ahead of its planned November-end public debut. Other changes in the management include Douglas Lehman Feagin, Senior Vice President, Ant Group, joining Paytm’s board and replacing Ant Group Chairman and CEO, Jing Xiandong. Flipkart also appointed Ash Lilani, Managing Partner, Saama Captial, as the independent director to its board. Michael Yuen Jen Yao from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Todd Anthony Combs, Investment Manager, Berkshire Hathaway, retired by rotation from OCL’s board recently. Both Yao and Combs were appointed to One97’s board of directors in 2019.
Paytm is India’s leading financial services company that renders full-stack payments & financial solutions to consumers, offline merchants, and online platforms. The company breathes a mission to bring half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy through payments, commerce, banking, investments, and financial services. One97 Communications Limited that owns the brand Paytm is headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Its investors include Softbank, Ant Financial, AGH Holdings, SAIF Partners, Berkshire Hathaway, T Rowe Price, and Discovery Capital.
