Brands
Honda wraps FY25 with a turbocharged 58.31 lakh units sold, goes full throttle
MUMBAI: Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) hit the finish line of FY 2024–25 with its engines roaring, posting a massive 58.31 lakh unit sales—cruising ahead with a 19 per cent year-on-year jump. In March 2025 alone, the company sold 4,27,448 units, including 4,01,411 domestic and 26,037 exported two-wheelers. That’s not just acceleration—it’s domination.
If FY25 had a theme, it would be more power to Honda—and not just the fuel-injected kind. The brand broke into electric mobility with its ACTIVA e and QC1, launched bookings on 1 January and started deliveries by March. At the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025, Honda didn’t just flex—it showed off its green muscle with tech-laden concepts, including the CB300F Flex-Fuel, Motocompacto, and advanced battery-swapping tech.
The OBD2B compliant line-up got a massive revamp too, covering popular models from Activa to Hornet 2.0, showing Honda’s commitment to stay road-ready and regulation-proof.
HMSI’s premium BigWing arm also fired on all cylinders. The launch of the NX200 with new-age upgrades and the refreshed CB650R and CBR650R turned heads in the upper cc league. And the 300cc flex-fuel CB300F? It’s now a first in India.
Milestones? Oh, plenty. Shine & SP125 crossed 30 lakh customers in eastern India and 10 lakh in Madhya Pradesh, while the south saw Honda break the two crore sales mark. The numbers weren’t just big—they were legacy-defining.
On the social front, HMSI didn’t let off the throttle either. It educated over 97 lakh citizens on road safety across 120 cities and trained women cab drivers under its Stree सारथी programme. From planting one lakh trees during environment month to empowering farmers through Project Annadata, it’s clear Honda’s drive is as much about heart as horsepower.
Motorsport fans weren’t left in the dust. Mohsin Paramban dominated the IDEMITSU Honda Indian Talent Cup, while Honda Racing India made noise at the Asia Road Racing Championship. Even at the rough-and-ready Dakar Rally, Honda clinched a double podium with style.
Honda didn’t just close FY25 on a high. It wheelied across it, leaving behind skid marks of innovation, impact, and sheer velocity.
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.
