BharatPe, the Indian financial services and UPI payments platform, has appointed Ajit Kumar as its chief technology officer (CTO).
This alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, brings over 19 years of experience to the table.
His professional journey began with YASU Technologies in July of 2006, as software engineer. Just over a year later, he moved to SAP, when the latter acquired YASU. At SAP he stayed put for over four years. He began as senior software engineer and was elevated to principal software engineer in less than three years, in July of 2010.
He then spent over two years with Drishti Engineering Institute, which he co-founded with two friends in 2010.
As tech lead for xAd, Inc. he spent a short while handling a web-based reporting system, where authorised users could view and analyse revenue generated from
different ad vendors and how it was distributed to ad publishers for any given time frame.
He also played chief engineer manager, Times Internet for over three and a half years, from May 2012 to December, 2015.
Ajit Kumar’s next stop was Snapdeal, where he headed backend of engineering-Shopo. For a year and four months, he led a team of skilled professionals in the areas of engineering, research and development at Shopo before moving to Paytm in 2017.
Kumar’s first role at Paytm was that of GM engineering, in March of 2017. A year into this role he was elevated to AVP engineering. In November of 2020 he became vice president of engineering. Another promotion in 2023 put him in the position of senior vice president of engineering.
In his new role at BharatPe, Ajit Kumar will be tasked with spearheading BharatPe’s technology strategy and innovation agenda, driving the next phase of product excellence, scalability and reliability across its payments and lending platforms.
Nalin Negi, chief executive officer, BharatPe, is relying on Kumar’s “proven experience in building scalable fintech platforms and his deep understanding of payments and UPI infrastructure…to innovate and strengthen our technology stack”. Negi is confident that his “ leadership will be key in driving BharatPe’s mission of empowering millions of merchants and consumers through cutting-edge fintech solutions.”
Meanwhile, Ajit Kumar is keen to work “with the talented team to build resilient, high-performance platforms that redefine digital payments and credit accessibility for merchants and consumers alike.”


