Kiwi, a fintech startup, appointed Sumeet Basrani as Chief Business Officer, as the company focuses on expanding the distribution of credit on UPI through partnerships with banks and digital ecosystem players.
The appointment comes as Kiwi moves from early product adoption toward scaling distribution of credit-on-UPI through bank and ecosystem partnerships, with the company looking to expand access and develop additional use cases for credit-based payments.
Basrani brings more than 15 years of experience in cards and payments, having worked with companies including CRED, OneCard, ICICI Bank and Visa. In his most recent role, he helped build and scale partnerships at CRED across credit cards, payments and lending with banks and financial institutions.
Kiwi operates in the credit-on-UPI segment, partnering with banks to issue RuPay credit cards that can be linked to UPI, allowing users to pay via UPI while the transaction is routed through a credit line. The platform focuses on distribution, partnerships and product infrastructure to enable credit-based UPI payments at scale.
Siddharth Mehta, Co-founder of Kiwi, said the leadership appointment comes as the company enters a new phase of growth. “This is a natural next step for us. As we grow, it becomes important to have leadership that can translate market shifts into clear business and product decisions,” Mehta said.
He added that, “Sumeet understands how banks, networks and consumer platforms intersect, which is exactly where Kiwi is building. His experience in scaling businesses will be critical as we take credit on UPI to a much larger audience,” Mehta said.
Basrani said credit-linked UPI payments are beginning to gain adoption in the market but still have significant room for growth.
According to the company, more than 2,00,000 RuPay credit cards have been issued through the Kiwi app within two years of its launch in 2023. The company aims to expand its presence in the segment and grow the adoption of credit-based UPI payments in India.
