Brands
Red Chief ropes in Vicky Kaushal as Brand Ambassador
MUMBAI: Leayan Global Pvt. Ltd., has roped in Vicky Kaushal, the iconic Bollywood actor, as the Brand ambassador for its leading leather footwear brand Red Chief. Red Chief has been consistently providing best quality, comfortable and stylish footwear for over 21 years now to its nationwide base of loyal customers. Today, Red Chief has robust distribution network and is available through 3000 plus multi-brand outlets, over 170 exclusive stores and all leading e-commerce platforms.
Manoj Gyanchandani, Managing Director, Leayan Global, said “We are delighted to have Vicky Kaushal as the Brand Ambassador for our leading leather footwear brand Red Chief. Vicky gels very well with our Red Chief brand image, which is rugged, tough and confidently stylish. We are quite confident of taking our brand to next level of growth and expansion across the country, with better penetration among the youth.”
“It feels great to be associated with Red Chief, a home-grown footwear brand that enjoys mass appeal” Vicky Kaushal said.
Rahul Sharma, General Manager – Marketing, Leayan Global, added “To continue leveraging our association, Vicky Kaushal would be part of our campaign ‘Khel Gaye Chief’ which will be launched very soon through mass media and digital platforms. Thereafter, many more brand campaigns have been planned back to back for the next few seasons.”
Vicky Kaushal is one of the most celebrated actors in Indian cinema and is renowned for his powerhouse performances in films such as Masaan, Raazi, Sanju and Uri, which became one of the biggest hits of 2019.
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.
