In a move aimed at tightening execution as it scales beyond payments, PhonePe has elevated long-time engineering leader Srijon Biswas to CTO, while co-founder Rahul Chari becomes CPTO. The UPI market leader is aligning product and technology more tightly as it deepens bets in financial services and consumer products.
What the reshuffle signals
The company is positioning for faster build cycles and stronger platform reliability by separating day-to-day engineering leadership from broader product-tech strategy. The shift also underlines a push to monetise a massive user base through new offerings across investments, insurance and lending.
Chari framed the change as a capacity build for the next phase. ‘As PhonePe continues to expand and grow, strengthening our technology leadership is a natural step. Srijon’s appointment ensures we continue to invest deeply in engineering excellence while building the technology platforms,’ he said.
Here is what changes immediately, according to the company:
– Srijon Biswas becomes CTO, leading engineering
– He continues reporting to Rahul Chari
– Chari takes charge as CPTO
– Trust & Safety, Data Sciences & Analytics and Customer Experience remain with Chari
Roles split to speed product execution
Biswas, who has led engineering across multiple teams over several years, will now head the entire engineering organisation. The company said he has been part of PhonePe’s technology leadership through a period of rapid growth, helping build core systems.
Chari’s new remit spans product and technology, plus strategic initiatives across PhonePe Group. He will continue to lead Trust & Safety, Data Sciences & Analytics and Customer Experience, signalling a unified command over risk, data, service quality and roadmap.
Scaling beyond payments
PhonePe has built out an investment and stockbroking arm, an insurance division and a lending vertical. All three have been growing rapidly over the last couple of years, as the company has aggressively monetised its large customer base.
Biswas said the tech mandate is about resilience at national scale. ‘I am excited to work with our immensely talented teams to continue pushing the boundaries of innovation, reliability, and scale as we build products that serve hundreds of millions of Indians,’ he said.
User and merchant scale
The company counts more than 700 million registered users and around 200 million active users. Its merchant base stands at around 5 crore across India. The scale makes reliability and risk controls central to PhonePe’s market position.
The pairing of a CTO focused on engineering excellence with a CPTO overseeing product direction and risk functions suggests a bid to compress launch cycles without compromising trust.
Why the timing matters
PhonePe was spun out of Flipkart and redomiciled to India ahead of its planned public listing. The company deferred the IPO a couple of months ago, citing geopolitical tensions and poor investor sentiment.
With capital markets uncertain, capturing revenue from newer financial products becomes critical. Strong product-tech leadership can help PhonePe defend share and expand margins while public-market windows remain fluid.
What to watch next
Expect tighter integration between data science, customer experience and product rollouts, given Chari’s combined purview. That could translate into faster iteration in lending and insurance, where underwriting, service and UX need constant tuning.
Key indicators to track now include:
– Pace of new product launches
– Improvements in reliability and support metrics
– Monetisation trends across investments, insurance and lending
If execution matches intent, the leadership reset could help PhonePe convert its distribution scale into deeper financial relationships, strengthening its moat in India’s digital finance market.
