Brands
Shobhit Gaur puts his best foot forward with sock startup The Sock Street
MUMBAI: There’s a new disruptor on the block, and it’s not in tech, crypto, or AI.
It’s socks.
Yes, socks—the humble, often-overlooked foot soldiers of fashion.
And leading this sartorial rebellion is media industry veteran-turned-entrepreneur Shobhit Gaur, who’s ditching Powerpoint decks for power heels (well, almost) with his new venture ‘The Sock Street’.
Launched in April 2025, The Sock Street (TSS) isn’t your average ‘pair and spare’ startup. It’s a direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand aiming to turn your toes into trendsetters. With a wild ambition to clock Rs 100 crore in revenue in just two years and open 500 dark stores, Gaur is clearly not here to toe the line.
“At The Sock Street, we are aiming to be a Global Sustainable organisation and Redefining the Socks industry,” said Gaur. “With this vision, we want to be a 100 Cr company in the next two years. We are not only creating a company we are creating a movement that challenges traditional perceptions of everyday essentials.”
Joining this sock-powered saga are two seasoned leaders: Udit Mayor as chief executive officer and Saurabh Srivastava as chief business officer. Between them, they bring decades of experience in manufacturing, branding, and digital wizardry. Mayor has been a staple in the sock industry for over 20 years, while Srivastava recently led digital marketing for Popeyes under Jubilant Foodworks.
“I am honoured to lead The Sock Street into its next chapter of growth alongside a talented team committed to innovation and sustainability,” said Mayor.
Srivastava echoed the sentiment, saying, “Joining The Sock Street is an incredible opportunity to drive meaningful impact through bold strategies that resonate with customers while building a sustainable future.”
Gaur, who cut his teeth in media and advertising across Asia for two decades, founded TSS in 2024 with a mission to reimagine socks as bold lifestyle statements—not just footnotes in fashion. Now, as the brand steps into its second year, Gaur is moving into a more strategic role as founder and advisory member, focusing on mentoring his leadership team and steering the overall vision.
With plans to roll out hundreds of dark stores—those mysterious, hyper-efficient online fulfillment hubs—and a sustainability-first playbook, TSS is shaping up to be a serious player in the lifestyle game. Think fewer boring black pairs, more electric patterns with purpose.
Mayor, with his manufacturing pedigree, is tasked with scaling the business and making ‘premium men’s socks’ the next big lifestyle flex. Meanwhile, Srivastava will juggle procurement, supply chains, finance, sales, marketing, and production—all while keeping the company’s carbon footprint light and stylish.
If socks were ever in need of a PR makeover, Gaur and his motley crew are here to give the industry a swift kick up the ankle.
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.
