Brands
Britannia Marie Gold My Start Up Season 2 finale
New Delhi:- Britannia Marie Gold, a 60+-year-old favorite brand of homemakers and the 3rd largest biscuit brand in India, announced the ten winners of its annual women entrepreneurship initiative, Britannia Marie Gold My Start-Up campaign. Under the aegis of this initiative, the 10 winners were felicitated and awarded INR 10 Lakhs each to kick-start their business ventures. Britannia Marie Gold My Startup is a platform for aspiring homemakers to fuel their entrepreneurial dreams, become financially independent, and transform themselves into job creators.
In addition to financial assistance, the current edition of the Britannia Marie Gold My Start-Up initiative provides 10,000 homemakers access to India’s first-ever customized online skill development program, in partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The online course imparts these homemakers with the necessary entrepreneurial skills, boosting their confidence as they take their first step towards a self-reliant future. Britannia is confident that many of the homemakers who undergo the skill development training will move on to become entrepreneurs.
Launched in February 2020, the 2nd edition witnessed, within a span of 3 months over 1.5 million applications from across the country and an overwhelming participation form 32 states and Union Territories. The means of entries was opened to include telephone call, web and WhatsApp. Over 25% of the entries came in via WhatsApp. Following weeks of deliberation by an external jury who mulled over lakhs of applications, the Britannia Marie Gold team shortlisted 50 finalists.
Britannia Industries Ltd Chief Commercial Officer, Gunjan Shah, said, “This is a very important initiative for Britannia driven by one of our flagship brands, Britannia Marie Gold. In its current edition, the initiative is touching the lives of over 10, 000 women and their families and we are privileged to be able to do so. Britannia is committed to provide a platform for aspiring women entrepreneurs to present their business ideas and stand a chance to gain financial help and skill development to set off on their entrepreneurial journey.”
Britannia Industries Ltd Head of Marketing Vinay Subramanyam said, “Becoming entrepreneurs enables our award-winning homemakers to also become job creators who can transform many lives around them. One successful woman entrepreneur opens a wide window of opportunities for many, as was proven by our last year’s winners. We are delighted that through this initiative, we are introducing to the entrepreneurial world 10 more homepreneurs and skilling 10,000 homemakers to power their entrepreneurial journey. We strongly believe that when women become self-reliant and financially independent, entire families and societies and eventually, the country progresses.”
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.
