Cashfree appoints Arun Tikoo as SVP of Business and Strategy

Digital payments and banking technology company, Cashfree, has appointed Arun Tikoo as the senior vice president of business and strategy to fuel the next phase of its growth. Arun will drive strategic expansion across products, merchants, partnerships, and alliances. He will be responsible for strengthening the existing distribution network across industries and will oversee compliance, pricing, and operational setups of the new product launches. He will also develop and lead the execution of strategic plans to grow Cashfree’s footprint in international markets and partnerships with banks.

Arun brings over two decades of experience across senior leadership roles at top financial institutions like SBI, Yes bank, ICICI and HDFC. In a decade-long stint at Yes Bank, he was instrumental in bringing innovation to the business line. He leveraged the retail distribution network and grew digital products in retail, startups, and SME segments. He drove the first ever API integration across the industry as well as strategic partnerships with accelerator programs such as T-hub, Springboard, and multiple state government setups. As part of the YES:Head-STARTUP program, he onboarded many startups across fintech, agritech, edutech and ecommerce & aggregators, some of whom have become unicorns now.

Commenting on the appointment, Akash Sinha, CEO and co-founder, Cashfree said, “Arun Tikoo brings with him a wealth of traditional and digital banking experience. We are thrilled to have him on-board. We are confident that Arun’s experience in the BFSI sector and his impressive network, built over 20 years, will propel Cashfree’s growth strategy. There are some exciting things in the pipeline at Cashfree and Arun’s expertise will be critical in helping us move swiftly in our goal of boosting digital payments in India and bringing more people into the financial ecosystem”.

Arun Tikoo, SVP, business and strategy, Cashfree said, “I am excited to be part of Cashfree at a pivotal growth period. Fintech is the future of the banking and payments industry. It is well-positioned to lead an overhaul of the banking industry in the next five years. As one of the fastest growing fintech companies in India, Cashfree is poised to increase the industry's digital footprint with its innovative offerings. My focus will be to create a clear product road map and drive Cashfree’s expansion into new geographies.”

Cashfree is among the leading payment service providers in India and processes transactions worth USD 20 billion annually. With over 50% market share among payment processors, Cashfree today leads the way in bulk disbursals in India with Cashfree Payouts. Recently, India’s largest lender, SBI invested in Cashfree underscoring the company’s role in building a robust payments ecosystem. Cashfree works closely with all leading banks to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that powers the company’s products and is also integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Wix, Paypal, Amazon Pay, Paytm and Google Pay. Apart from India, Cashfree’s products are used in eight other foreign countries like the USA, Canada, and the UAE