Brands
Wizcraft ties up with Tussauds S’pore for interactive IIFA
MUMBAI: As the audience awaits for the upcoming IIFA Festival New York 2017 in New York City, IIFA exclusively partners with Madame Tussauds Singapore to Celebrate Bollywood with the world’s first permanent IIFA Awards Experience.
The new interactive zone was officiated by Bollywood megastar and Friend of IIFA Anil Kapoor, a five-time IIFA Awards winner as he unveiling his wax figure from Slumdog Millionaire. This is the first time the figure will be shown to the public in a Madame Tussauds attraction. His figure will be in Singapore for a limited period only, before he will be featured in Madame Tussauds Delhi, due to open soon in 2017.
Renowned actor Anil Kapoor said, “It is an incredible honor to unveil my wax figure from Slumdog Millionaire at the world’s first interactive IIFA Awards Experience in Singapore at the iconic Madame Tussauds.”
The new interactive zone is designed and produced by Wizcraft International for fans of Bollywood who can now immerse themselves in the glitz and glamour surrounding the biggest celebration of India Cinema, the IIFA Awards Experience in Singapore at Madame Tussauds, the world’s most popular wax attraction.
Wizcraft International director Andre Timmins said, “The international success of Bollywood has bolstered the popularity of the IIFA Awards around the world.”
With the launch of the IIFA Awards Experience, fans can interact with Bollywood favourites Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Hrithik Roshan. Madame Tussauds will continue to grow the ultimate Bollywood experience by adding newcomers and old-time favourites to the collection in the near future.
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
