Brands
Happy Monk steams up India’s frozen aisle with chef-style, preservative-free dim sums
MUMBAI: Move over mass-market momos, there’s a new monk in town. Happy Monk, a new disruptor in the frozen food space, is shaking up Indian freezers with its first-of-its-kind line of premium, chef-crafted, preservative-free dim sums.
Launched by f&b veterans Varun Kapoor (ex-ITC, HUL) and Deepthi Nair (ex-Bisleri, MTR, Capital Foods), the brand rolls out with over 20 hand-folded varieties, featuring edgy flavour bombs like Edamame Truffle, Smoked Chicken & Cheddar, and Sriracha Chicken. Priced between Rs 395–485 for a pack of 10 dumplings and a hit of chilli oil, the line-up promises restaurant-quality indulgence—straight from your freezer, minus the guilt.
“We’ve seen the food industry evolve, but the frozen food category in India has remained largely unchanged. We saw an opportunity to introduce something more premium, more exciting, and more in line with what the consumer wants,” says Kapoor. “Our goal was simple: to bring high-quality dim sums to every home without sacrificing flavour, convenience, or authenticity. What started as a small experiment quickly grew into something bigger because we saw the demand for truly exceptional frozen food.”
“Happy Monk is more than just a food brand, it’s a lifestyle experience that can be made easily accessible for the quality-conscious audience”, adds Nair. “There’s a new wave of consumers who are redefining comfort food. They want food that feels familiar but tastes elevated. That’s the sweet spot we occupy by providing gourmet food that’s deeply satisfying, yet incredibly convenient.”
Currently available on www.thehappymonk.co.in, the brand offers same-day delivery in Mumbai (for orders before 3 pm) and has plans to expand to other metro and tier-1 cities.
With punchy packaging, playful branding, and full-on flavour, Happy Monk isn’t just joining the frozen food category, it’s building one. Say hello to dumplings with a little more bite.
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.
