Brands
Transteel and Tata Steel unveil eco-smart graphene jute-cotton office fabrics
MUMBAI: Transteel, has teamed up with Tata Steel to introduce graphene-enhanced jute and cotton fabrics to India’s commercial furniture landscape. This cutting-edge upholstery material, designed to boost durability and wellness, supports a circular economy model and significantly reduces reliance on plastics.
Unveiled earlier this year at FM and CRE World Hyderabad and CE Worldwide, the collaboration showcased Transteel’s new bio chairs collection, upholstered in Tata Steel’s advanced graphene-treated natural fibres. As event sponsor, Transteel highlighted its vision of eco-conscious design that doesn’t compromise on performance.
Bio chairs incorporate Tata Steel’s proprietary Graphene ink technology, enhancing the strength, water and stain resistance, and antibacterial qualities of natural fabrics. By integrating these materials, Transteel underlines its commitment to ergonomic comfort, quality craftsmanship, and environmental stewardship.
“At Transteel, we are committed to designing workspaces that are both functional and sustainable. The introduction of Graphene enriched jute and cotton fabrics in our bio chair collection allows us to offer high-performance office seating solutions that support environmental responsibility while maintaining the highest standards of comfort and durability,” said, Transteel managing director Shiraz Ibrahim.
Targeted at corporate and commercial spaces, the bio chairs offer a durable and eco-friendly alternative to synthetic upholstery. As the go-to-market partner for upholstery-grade graphene, Transteel is currently in talks with Tata Steel for a Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) agreement signalling a long-term alignment on sustainability goals.
The partnership exemplifies both companies’ shared mission to reduce plastic use, support farm-to-business sourcing, and champion circular economy practices in the office furniture industry.
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.
