Brands
Donald Trump, Mukesh & Nita Ambani, Kalpesh Mehta & Pankaj Bansal: What’s the connection?
MUMBAI: When the incoming president of the US invites you, you definitely have to go. The pre-swearing in inaugural festivities thrown by the to-be -President Trump at an intimate gathering of friends and family at Trump National Sterling in Virginia saw a handful of Indians mark their presence. But those who really want to make a splash of it are two Indian real estate developers who are the Republican leader’s Indian partners in Trump Towers.
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We are referring to Tribeca Developers founder Kalpesh Mehta and M3M Developers managing director Pankaj Bansal who were seen hobnobbing with Trump and sharing a glass of bubbly with him. Both Mehta and Bansal are key partners in the development of Trump Towers in India, reflecting the strong ties between Indian business leaders and the Trump Organisation. Kalpesh Mehta, the licensed Indian partner for Trump Towers, has been instrumental in bringing the Trump brand to India. They were also seen cracking a few jokes with India’s richest couple – Mukesh and Nita Ambani. Mukeshbhai and Nitabhabi, apparently, took an overnighter on their private jet for a spin to Washington DC.
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Global leaders, including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and other prominent business figures, were also in attendance.
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A nearly 20 minute firework display was watched by Trump and his wife Melania and his extended family from the balcony of his club.
Trump’s alleged excesses have already got critics carping about his proximity to several American billionaire friends of his who are getting crucial posts and others (one of them read crypto currency industry) who are handing out $250 million to the inauguration committee for spending on what is being called the most expensive inauguration (read party) of a president in history. Other presidents have reportedly spent less than $50 million (Obama) on their inauguration spending prior to Trump who spent a massive $107 million following his 2017 election victory.
With the Trump-baiters getting their knives out even before he has got into the White House, we wonder what they will come up with after he does. We can only wait and watch.
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.
