Brands
Roundglass Sports signs golfer Shubhankar Sharma as brand ambassador
Mumbai: In yet another landmark initiative, Roundglass Sports has announced that it has signed India’s number one golfer, Shubhankar Sharma, as a brand ambassador. A long-term agreement has been signed to this effect during which Roundglass Sports will be the primary sponsor of the 27-year-old golfer from Chandigarh, who is a two-time winner on the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) and has eight career titles to his name.
In addition to Roundglass Sports, Shubhankar will be promoting different verticals of Roundglass such as Rounglass Foundation and the Roundglass Golf Academy, which is expected to become operational in two years. This association is an extension of Roundglass Sports’ mission to support and promote top sportspersons, including marquee golfers, in India who possess the talent to compete and win at the international level.
Shubhankar is a prodigal talent who turned pro in 2013 at the age of 16. He is currently the highest-ranked Indian (#188 on the Official World Golf Ranking) in men’s professional golf globally and was the No.1 player in Asia in 2018. Shubhankar has had a status on the European and Asian Tours since 2018. He also features regularly on the PGA Tour.
Shubhankar has made multiple appearances in all the Golf Majors and recorded the best-ever finish by an Indian at The Open, the oldest golf championship in the world. At the 151st Open in Liverpool last year, he finished tied for eighth position.
In addition, his two European Tour titles have been the Joburg Open and the Maybank Championships. His six other titles have been in India’s top pro tour, the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).
Reflecting on the development, Roundglass founder Sunny Gurpreet Singh said, “We are delighted to welcome Shubhankar Sharma, a world-class athlete, to the Roundglass family. At Roundglass Sports, our mission is clear: to give children in India the opportunity to play and develop them into world-class athletes, prioritizing their sporting skills and wholistic development. We have serious plans to develop and advance the game of golf in India and who better than a successful golfer like Shubhankar to lead the charge. He is a rare talent who has proven his ability to excel on international courses, and we’re confident that his best is yet to come. Role models such as Shubhankar can inspire millions of children in India to pursue sports professionally.”
Speaking about the association with Roundglass Sports, Shubhankar Sharma said, “I am honoured to be associated with Roundglass Sports, a brand with a clear vision to elevate sports in India. It supports sports like football, hockey, tennis and golf, and is developing world-class sports infrastructure in the country. The brand’s focus is on the long-term wholistic development of athletes, an approach to sports that deeply resonates with me. Mr Sunny Singh is a visionary and a passionate leader who wants to take Indian athletes to the global stage. I am excited about this and feel privileged to be a part of this journey. I look forward to a fruitful and successful association with Roundglass Sports.”
Shubhankar is also a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2018, the second highest honour for sports personalities in the country. He was also awarded the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year in 2018 and is a winner of the Asian Tour Order of Merit in the same year.
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.
