Brands
Mercedes-Benz India plans to expand its retail footprint with pop-up stores to connect with the youth
MUMBAI: In a bid to attract more customers and create brand consumerism, Mercedes-Benz India is coming up with 7 retail pop-up stores. One of which has already been inaugurated in Lower Parel in Mumbai, there are 6 more stores which will be opened in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa.
For the year 2016, with the brand philosophy ‘Winning with Mercedes-Benz’, the company is reaching closer and making its presence felt to its esteemed and discerning customers. The idea is to win the heart and the mind of consumers based on these innovative initiatives to create more awareness, brand recall and connect with consumers on an interpersonal level. The locations of these pop up stores are selected strategically, based on consumer mapping and behavioural patterns.
These pop-up stores will be positioned in places like lounges, pubs, cafes and restaurants to reach out to a larger target audience, this way Mercedes-Benz will be able to reach to youngsters in metros and Tier I markets. These pop-up stores will see sections such as branding and audio-visuals which will enhance consumer interest towards brand Mercedes-Benz. The customers will be able to engross themselves through special Mercedes-Benz applications and merchandise available at these stores.
Roland Folger, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said, “The pop-up stores will increase our visibility in the market as we plan to tap the young generation through it. This is a novel way to create a brand connect with youngsters who are extremely enthusiastic about cars. We are opening pop-up stores in multiple places to understand the likeability and choices of today’s outgoing generation. This further helps us in expansion of such initiatives that will give a sense of exclusivity to our customers and build a positive affinity towards the brand.”
These innovations will help to compete in a market where traditional luxury norms become lesser relevant day-by-day. The year 2016 has a strong line-up of product launches from Mercedes-Benz including 12 new offerings and 10 new dealership inaugurations across markets. Mercedes-Benz aims at a sustained double digit growth in this year too.
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.
