The most recent in a string of domestic senior-level departures at parent company Meta Platform Inc. is Vinay Choletti, who was in charge of WhatsApp’s payment business in India for the past four months.
Choletti wrote on LinkedIn late on Tuesday, “As I move on to my next adventure, I strongly believe that WhatsApp has the power to phenomenally transform digital payments and financial inclusion in India,” and “I look forward to seeing it leverage its potential in the coming years.”
In the past few months, executive positions have undergone a number of shifts at Meta. In November, WhatsApp’s India head Abhijit Bose, Meta’s India head Ajit Mohan, and Meta’s public policy director in India Rajiv Aggarwal all resigned.
After Manesh Mahatme left WhatsApp in September to join Amazon, Choletti took over WhatsApp Pay in India.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Choletti spent seven years at Amazon prior to joining WhatsApp Pay in October 2021 as the head of Merchant Payments.
Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp has been competing with more established payers like Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay, Ant Group’s Paytm, and Walmart’s PhonePe in a highly competitive market to attract more Indians to its peer-to-peer payments service.
The Facebook parent doubled down on its metaverse bet last month, cutting more than 11,000 jobs, or 13% of its workforce, amid a crumbling advertising market and decades-high inflation.
