PayU India Co-founder Shailaz Nag to restart in Indian fintech space, looks to raise first round from Naspers
Shailaz Nag, who has quit PayU India, believes India's fintech space presents a lot of opportunities, and is already in talks with Naspers Fintech to raise the first round for his new venture.
PayU India Managing Director and Co-founder Shailaz Nag is back on the entrepreneurial path and is looking to start up in India’s financial technology space after exiting the fintech firm.
Replying to YourStory’s queries, Shailaz confirmed that he had put in his papers and would continue with the fintech major for the next two months, serving his notice.
With this, Shailaz will join the likes of Kunal Shah, Founder of Cred; Ashish Kashyaap, Founder of INDWealth; Satyen Kothari, Founder of Cube Wealth, and his ex-colleague Jitendra Gupta, PayU India MD and Co-founder of Citrus Pay - all of them have restarted their second venture in the fintech space.
Without revealing too many details about his newest venture, Shailaz said,
“India still has a lot of opportunities that can be solved, and there is a need to bring more individuals under the digital gamut. Also, with its conducive regulations for budding startups, I decided to start up again. While I can’t reveal much, my next venture will be in the fintech space, and will particularly focus on India’s offline segment.”
Shailaz also told YourStory that he was in talks to raise the first round of funding from Naspers for his next venture. He added,
“I’ve been with Naspers for the last 12 years now; I was one of the founding members of ibibo Group and later co-founded PayU India. Hence, Naspers is an obvious choice and there are talks with them to be a part of the family again, by raising funds from them.”
When asked if he had approached other venture funds, Shailaz said he hadn’t, since he was still a part of PayU India.
“I’m still not completely out of PayU India, so I haven’t spoken to other funds yet. But I will be reaching out to other funds for the investment round.”
YourStory subsequently reached out to PayU India to know more. Responding to queries, a PayU spokesperson said,
“PayU has always encouraged entrepreneurial skills, be it externally, by supporting entrepreneurs in the form of investments, or internally. We acknowledge Shailaz’s contribution towards PayU’s growth in India and encourage his desire to begin a new chapter in his career. As part of our business strategy, PayU is open to collaborating with promising founders driven by an entrepreneurial passion. Having worked so closely with Shailaz for such a long period, we trust his business expertise and are open to exploring business synergies with his new venture."
Second innings
The news of Shailaz putting in his papers comes a week after, Jitendra Gupta, PayU India’s other Managing Director, and Co-founder of Citrus (acquired by PayU India in 2016), stepped down from the global digital payments company to also start up again in India’s fintech landscape.
Earlier in March, this year, Citrus Pay Co-founder Amrish Rau also moved on from his position as PayU India CEO to lead financial technology partnerships and investments for Naspers, PayU’s parent company.
When asked the reason for the churn in senior leadership and whether it would impact the market sentiment around PayU, Shailaz commented,
“Firstly, I think I’m not really worried about leaving right now. Over the past few years, PayU has built some great products and created some interesting partnerships, which will help the company grow. And we believe that under the capable leadership of Anirban, PayU will now steer towards creating a full regional fintech ecosystem.”
At present, PayU Global is planning to disburse credit and financial services for underserved populations in high-growth markets. The company recently announced its expansion in the Southeast Asian region, through the acquisition of a majority stake in Red Dot Payment (RDP), a Southeast Asia-focused online payment solutions provider.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)