Brands
India’s fastest-growing credit-on-UPI platform Kiwi appoints Sumeet Basrani as chief business officer
Fintech shifts from early adoption to mass distribution through bank and ecosystem partnerships
BENGALURU: Kiwi is gearing up for its next growth sprint, bringing in Sumeet Basrani as chief business officer to turn early traction into mass-market scale. The credit-on-UPI platform is now pivoting from product adoption to aggressive distribution, betting on deeper bank and ecosystem tie-ups to widen access.
Basrani arrives with over 15 years in cards and payments, with stints at CRED, OneCard, ICICI Bank and Visa. At CRED, he helped build and scale partnerships across credit cards, payments and lending with banks and financial institutions, experience Kiwi is now counting on as it looks to expand its footprint.
The mandate is clear: take credit on UPI from a promising innovation to a mass product. Kiwi is aiming to unlock access for millions, aligning its push with shifting consumer behaviour while moving from product strength to market scale.
“This is a natural next step for us. As we grow, it becomes important to have leadership that can translate market shifts into clear business and product decisions. Sumeet understands how banks, networks and consumer platforms intersect, which is exactly where Kiwi is building. His experience in scaling businesses will be critical as we take credit on UPI to a much larger audience,” Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said.
Basrani sees a market on the cusp. “Credit on UPI is at an inflection point; early adoption is visible, but the real opportunity lies in embedding credit seamlessly into everyday payments, while expanding access to credit. Kiwi is well-positioned to lead this shift, and the next phase will be about scaling distribution and unlocking new use cases for credit,” he said.
Founded as Gokiwi Tech, the startup is positioning itself at the centre of India’s evolving payments stack. It was the first to offer credit on UPI via RuPay cards in partnership with banks, and has already issued over 2 lakh such cards in under two years. The ambition is blunt: become the leading issuer of RuPay credit cards by 2026.
With leadership muscle added and distribution in focus, Kiwi is no longer just testing the waters. It is diving headfirst into the race to own credit on UPI at scale.
Brands
Škoda Auto India unveils ‘Easy to Love’ campaign for new Kushaq
Nostalgia meets humour as new SUV charms hearts with a Hindi cinema-inspired story
MUMBAI: Škoda Auto India, in collaboration with BBH India, has launched its latest integrated campaign, ‘Easy to Love’, celebrating the arrival of the new Škoda Kushaq. The campaign fuses nostalgia, humour and cinematic flair, drawing inspiration from the timeless Hindi cinema romance Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to showcase just how effortlessly the Kushaq wins hearts.
Following teasers and a feature reveal aired during the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup, the main film now brings the car to life with an emotional narrative that positions it as aspirational, relatable and irresistible for modern SUV buyers in India.
Set against everyday urban backdrops, the film follows a corporate professional, a young woman and a family man who, on spotting the Kushaq, are whisked into dreamy mustard-field sequences inspired by the iconic tune from the Hindi cinema classic. Each whimsical daydream snaps back to reality, revealing the car as the spark behind the fantasy. The film concludes with sweeping shots of the Kushaq cruising through mustard fields while highlighting the SUV’s key features.
Škoda brand director Ashish Gupta said the campaign strengthens Škoda’s position in India’s SUV segment, combining safety, quality and driving dynamics with premium features accessible to a wider audience. He added that the narrative blends nostalgia with contemporary storytelling, cementing the Kushaq as both aspirational and approachable.
Propagate India and BBH India chief creative officer Parikshit Bhattaccharya noted that the campaign taps into cultural memory to dramatise the SUV’s appeal. By juxtaposing everyday moments with larger-than-life fantasy sequences, it shows how effortlessly people can fall for the new Kushaq.
‘Easy to Love’ is now live across television, digital, social, print, cinema, OOH and radio. The campaign will also expand into a social-first micro-drama series and brand collaborations designed to keep audiences engaged and deepen cultural resonance over time.
