Brands
PhonePe acquires PoS platform Zopper
MUMBAI: Flipkart-owned digital payments platform PhonePe, yesterday, announced that it has acquired Zopper Retail, a hyperlocal point-of-sale platform for small and medium businesses. As part of the acquisition, Neeraj Jain, founder-CEO, Zopper will join the PhonePe team as head of product, offline merchant solutions.
The acquisition of Zopper is part of PhonePe’s aggressive strategy to build its offline payments business and thereby expand its customer base. With this acquisition, the Flipkart-owned digital payments company will hope to merge the value-added service capabilities of Zopper into its platform, thereby strengthening its offline proposition for merchants.
“Zopper has a very strong technology and innovation DNA, and Neeraj and team are also a great culture fit for PhonePe. Zopper Retail is specifically designed to meet the needs of millions of small retailers in India, and their strategy ties in very well with our overall vision of making digital payments universally accepted across the country,” said PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam as quoted by Inc 42.
Flipkart’s co-founders Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal had also made angel investments in Zopper in 2012. Founded in 2010, Zopper was initially a community-based product review site which then pivoted into a hyperlocal e-commerce site. In 2015-16, Zopper pivoted again and split its business into two distinct divisions – a Point of Sale (Pos) platform for offline merchants (Zopper Retail) and an extended warranty solutions unit for electronics purchased at offline outlets (Zopper Assure).
Last year, Flipkart made a commitment that it will invest $500 million in PhonePe to fight off competition. The acquisition will help the firm in the intensely competitive payments platform segment. Amongst its biggest competitors are India’s biggest payment company Paytm and Google’s Tez.
Brands
Mayank Prabhakar elevated to chief media officer at vivo India
After steering media and digital growth, Prabhakar steps into a wider role
MUMBAI: Vivo India has elevated Mayank Prabhakar to the role of chief media officer, marking a new chapter in his journey with the smartphone brand where he has spent over four years shaping its media and digital strategy.
Prabhakar, who earlier served as general manager and head of media and digital marketing, announced the development while reflecting on the opportunity to lead the brand’s storytelling and consumer engagement efforts. “Humbled and honoured to shape stories that inspire, connect and lead,” he noted while sharing the update.
Since joining vivo India in November 2021, Prabhakar has been closely involved in building the company’s media and performance marketing ecosystem, working across growth, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer initiatives. His work has centred on strengthening digital engagement while aligning media strategy with evolving consumer behaviour.
Before moving to vivo India, Prabhakar spent more than six years at Cheil Worldwide, where he held several senior roles including general manager, e-commerce marketing and deputy general manager, digital marketing. During this period, he worked on digital product launches and helped expand e-commerce partnerships with platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart.
Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles such as national vertical head at Times Internet and manager, enterprise business at One97 Communications, where he worked on enterprise mobility, mobile marketing and emerging digital campaign formats.
With nearly two decades of experience across media, digital marketing and mobile-led engagement, Prabhakar now takes on a broader mandate at vivo India as the brand continues to deepen its presence in the country’s competitive smartphone market.
