Paytm has appointed former head of Alibaba Group Holding’s wholesale business, Bhushan Patil, as its new president, as per a latest report from PTI. He will focus on building company’s cross-border commerce.
Patil was was in charge of operations at Alibaba for about five and half years. Patil’s appointment comes within a week of Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba’s plans to enter India this year. Paytm says its e-commerce business is growing rapidly and is on track to sell $2 billion worth of goods this year. It claims to have over 125 million users. The company hopes to more-than double its e-commerce growth rate by the end of the year.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO and founder, Paytm said,
We want to offer Indian merchants a compelling commerce platform and Patil brings an incredible experience of building cross border commerce. It will help Indian merchants to sell globally, too. As we continue to grow at an exponential pace, it is important for Paytm to expand its operations outside India for further development.
On his appointment Bhushan Patil said,
I’m thrilled to come on board at one of the fastest scaling payments and commerce platforms in the country and look forward to a mutually successful tenure at Paytm.