Brands
Bikaji Foods International acquires remaining stake in Petunt Food
Snack maker spends Rs 8 crore to buy the remaining 48.78 per cent stake
MUMBAI: Snack maker Bikaji Foods International said on Friday its board has approved the acquisition of the remaining 48.78 per cent equity stake in Petunt Food Processors Private Limited, turning the firm into a wholly owned subsidiary.
The additional investment, valued at about Rs 8 crore, will consolidate Bikaji’s ownership in Petunt Food. The company earlier held a 51.22 per cent stake in the food processor.
Following the transaction, Bikaji acquired 35,98,998 equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 each, representing the balance 48.78 per cent stake, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Petunt Food Processors has an authorised share capital of Rs 8 crore, comprising 80 lakh equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 each. Its paid-up share capital stands at Rs 7.37 crore, divided into 73,78,098 equity shares.
Bikaji said the acquisition aims to consolidate its shareholding and securing full ownership and operational control of Petunt Food, which plays a key role in the company’s operations in southern India.
Petunt Food Processors manufactures and processes a range of food products, including sweets and namkeen, and undertakes packaging, labelling, grading and distribution of food-related items.
The company reported a turnover of Rs 363 crore in FY2023, while its turnover stood at Rs 52.07 crore in FY2025.
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.
