WhatsApp Pay India’s head resigns after only a few months taking charge

Vinay Choletti joined the company in October 2021 as the head of Merchant Payments at WhatsApp Pay, and he later became the head of WhatsApp Pay India in September 2022.

Vinay Choletti, the head of WhatsApp’s India payment business, has left the company after only four months in the role, the most recent in a series of domestic senior-level departures at parent company Meta Platform Inc.

“As I move on to my next adventure, I strongly believe that WhatsApp has the power to phenomenally transform digital payments and financial inclusion in India and I look forward to seeing it leverage its potential in the coming years,” Choletti wrote on LinkedIn late Tuesday.

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In recent months, Meta has witnessed a number of changes in executive positions. Abhijit Bose, WhatsApp’s India chief, Rajiv Aggarwal, Meta’s public policy director in India, and Ajit Mohan, Meta’s India leader, all quit in November.

Meta didn’t respond immediately to Reuters’ request for comment.

Choletti took over WhatsApp Pay in India after Manesh Mahatme left to join Amazon in September.

Choletti worked at Amazon for seven years before joining WhatsApp Pay as the head of Merchant Payments in October 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.

WhatsApp, owned by Meta, has been attempting to lure more Indians to use its peer-to-peer payments service as it attempts to scale in a highly competitive industry and compete with more established payers such as Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay, Ant Group-backed Paytm, and Walmart’s PhonePe.

Last month, Meta slashed more than 11,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce, as the Facebook parent doubled down on its metaverse bet amid a disintegrating advertising market and decades-high inflation.