Head of fintech investments at PayU, Amrish Rau moves on from the company

After spending three years with Naspers-owned PayU, Amrish Rau, who was heading financial technology investments and partnerships for the global digital payments player, is moving on from the group. 

Confirming the news over a series of tweets, Amrish said

“It’s now time. Time to go again. Time to have another new experience. Corporate to startup to M&A to Angel investing to .... I leave behind PayU, LazyPay, Citrus and a bit of my heart.”

In response to this, PayU thanked Amrish for his efforts in building the PayU platform in India. The company tweeted, saying,

“Amrish, thank you for providing us a platform that allowed us to further strengthen and consolidate our leadership position in the Indian fintech industry. We wish you all the very best!”

Amrish joined Naspers-owned PayU after it acquired payments technology company Citrus Pay in 2016 for $130 million in cash. Post the acquisition, he was named the CEO of PayU India. Under his stewardship, the company also launched its credit product LazyPay.

In January 2019, Amrish transitioned to a broader role, basing himself out of Singapore, while heading financial technology and investments for PayU. There, he was responsible for investing and growing PayU’s fintech portfolio.

On Twitter, Amrish also shared some of his past learnings. On PayU’s acquisition of Citrus Pay and his stay at PayU, he tweeted,

“Citrus team feared founders will exit. PayU team wondered why the “competitor" was new CEO? Transparency, openness is the only way to build confidence. Enjoying the work place and eachothers’ company should be a priority. We did many off-sites and hang outs. Employees win wars for you.”

He also added mergers and acquisitions aren’t easy to do, and that founders need to build their own style. Advising founders, he tweeted,

“For founders - Exits are a responsibility. Selling the company is not the end of the journey. Delivering a safe acquisition for the buyer is. Indian startup ecosystem needs this.”

While Amrish hasn’t revealed his future plans yet, sources in the know told YourStory that the former PayU India CEO might be joining another major fintech firm. Further, sources also added that Amrish had plans to start his very own venture.

Earlier in July 2019, Jitendra Gupta, with whom Amrish had started CitrusPay, also quit from his position as Managing Director of PayU to start his new firm in the fintech space. 

Subsequently, he started a digital banking platform Jupiter Money under parent brand Amica Financial Technologies.

In November, the firm had announced it raised a seed round of $24 million from venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, 3one4 Capital, Tanglin Venture Partners, BeeNext, Germany’s Rocket Internet, and

London-based Greyhound Capital. Post the funding, the startup was valued at $70 million. 

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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