Brands
Bata India & Geisha Designs become a shoe fit for luxe wedding collection
MUMBAI: Who says you can’t dance all night in heels? Bata India and Geisha Designs are proving otherwise with a dazzling new collaboration, just in time for wedding season. Bringing together Bata’s signature comfort and contemporary style with Geisha’s exquisite craftsmanship, the partnership delivers a seamless fusion of fashion and function. The result? A collection that lets you sparkle at the cocktail party while keeping you effortlessly on your feet through the last wedding toast.
With Bata’s celebration collection and Geisha’s ‘Marquise – Evening Occasion Wear 2025’, this collaboration redefines wedding fashion by offering sophisticated silhouettes and metallic heels designed for maximum glamour with zero discomfort. Whether you’re twirling at the Sangeet, marching with the Baraat, or juggling bridesmaid duties with finesse, this collection is crafted for every high-energy wedding moment.
Bata India head of marketing Deepika Deepti shared, “Our collaboration with Designer label Geisha for ‘Marquise – Evening Occasion Wear 2025’ is a natural synergy—bringing together their expertise in couture craftsmanship with our legacy of stylish comfort. Weddings today are about celebrating in style while staying on your feet from the first dance to the last toast. The Bata celebration collection is designed precisely for maximalist dressing for those cocktail parties during the wedding saga, where you want to shine brighter while having high-quality comfort.”
Geisha Designs by Paras & Shalini, director & co-founder Shalini Jaikaria added, “This collection is a celebration of our commitment to detail and craftsmanship. We are excited to collaborate with Bata to present ‘Marquise,’ an evening occasion wear line, for the modern woman who seeks not just to make a statement but to tell her story—her every gesture a reminder of the beauty in authenticity and the magic of being unapologetically herself.”
With prices starting at Rs 999, the footwear range is now available across 1,900+ Bata stores, Bata.com, and leading e-commerce platforms. Designed to elevate wedding wardrobes without compromising on comfort, the collection cements Bata’s reputation as a brand that seamlessly blends heritage with modern innovation.
So, whether you’re planning to dance till dawn or own the room with effortless poise, this collaboration ensures that you do it in style—and without any foot pain regrets the morning after.
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.
