MAM
Nadkarni calls it a day at Coke
MUMBAI: Coca-Cola’s vice president marketing Shripad Nadkarni has decided to call it quits after a four-year stint with the company. Nadkarni officially put in his papers today.
Confirming the development to Indiantelevision.com, Nadkarni says, “I took the decision to start my own strategic marketing consultancy and implementation firm. Although, I will be transitioning and looking through all the campaigns that were currently under me.”
Talking about his Coke days he says, “It has been a wonderful experience with Coke and the brands have been outstanding. The team that I have worked with has been one of the best. Coke will always be a part of me.”
An IIM Bangalore graduate (83 batch), Nadkarni, prior to Coke was with Johnson & Johnson for 17 years. He joined Coke in October 2000 as marketing head. Nadkarni also got to lead the advertising campaign for Indonesia, rural China and other neighbouring countries. He was also heading the new beverages business as a profit centre.
Brands
Ujjwal Jain steps down from PhonePe’s Share.Market to start new chapter
Founder behind WealthDesk and OpenQ exits after decade-long fintech journey
BENGALURU: Ujjwal Jain, the entrepreneur behind platforms such as WealthDesk and OpenQ, has stepped down from his role as chief executive of Share.Market, the investing platform backed by PhonePe, marking the end of a decade-long journey in India’s capital markets space.
In a reflective note, Jain described his journey from launching WealthDesk in 2016 to building a broader ecosystem that eventually became part of PhonePe. Over the years, his ventures focused on bringing data-driven investing tools and model portfolios closer to retail investors, a space that has seen rapid evolution alongside the rise of discount broking.
WealthDesk introduced curated “WealthBaskets” to simplify portfolio investing, while OpenQ expanded access to quantitative research and analytics. Both platforms were later acquired by PhonePe, forming the backbone of Share.Market, which Jain helped scale as a mass-market investing product.
Calling the experience “brutal” yet deeply fulfilling, Jain credited colleagues, investors and industry partners for shaping the journey, highlighting the role of the PhonePe team in building Share.Market into a large-scale platform.
His exit comes at a time when artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape financial services globally. Jain indicated that his next move will focus on this shift, hinting at a renewed push into the intersection of AI and capital markets.
Prior to his entrepreneurial stint, Jain worked with MSCI Inc. on index products and technology, and with D. E. Shaw India Financial Services in algorithmic trading and high-frequency systems.
While he has not disclosed specifics of his next venture, Jain framed the move not as a departure but a reset, signalling that his next chapter will aim to tackle even larger challenges in India’s evolving investment landscape.
With one chapter closed and another underway, the focus now shifts to what Jain builds next in an increasingly AI-first financial world.
