Cashfree Payments appoints Abhaya Hota as independent director

Bengaluru-based payment aggregator Cashfree Payments has appointed former National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) managing director and chief executive Abhaya Hota as an independent director to its board, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hota, a former chief general manager with the Reserve Bank of India, was the first chief executive officer of NPCI. He retired from his position in August 2017.

At NPCI, he played a key role in the implementation of digital technology for cheque clearing and the launch of UPI and RuPay credit cards.


Hota also serves as an independent director at Federal Bank, NSE Clearing, Protean e-Gov Technologies and RBI Innovation Hub.

“His wealth of experience at the highest levels of banking and finance in the country will be of great value to us, especially from a governance and strategic policies point of view,” said Akash Sinha, cofounder and chief executive, Cashfree Payments.

The Y Combinator and State Bank of India-backed company saw its revenue from operations rising 75% on-year to Rs 614 crore in FY23, while it recorded a loss of Rs 133 crore in FY23, a significant jump from Rs 3 crore in the previous year.

On December 20, ET reported that Cashfree Payments had received approval from the RBI to operate as a payment aggregator and resumed the process of onboarding new merchants, following a nearly year-long regulatory ban.