In a major setback for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, WhatsApp Pay chief Vinay Choletti, has quit.
Within a few months of taking the reins, WhatsApp Pay India director, Vinay Choletti, quit. This happened just 4 months after he joined the company. This heralds another setback for WhatsApp’s Native Meta Platform as it is the latest in a series of high-profile exits.
Late Tuesday, on LinkedIn, Choletti posted this announcement, “As I move on to my next adventure, I strongly believe that WhatsApp has the extraordinary power to transform digital payments and financial inclusion in India and I look forward to seeing it fulfill its potential in the years to come.”
However, no official reason has been provided for her sudden departure. Choletti took over from the departure of his predecessor Manesh Mahatme in September. He joined Amazon. Choletti himself worked at Amazon for seven years before switching to WhatsApp Pay, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has suffered a series of setbacks as several top-level executives have stepped down from their roles over the past few months. Among them are WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose, Meta public policy director in India Rajiv Aggarwal and Meta India head Ajit Mohan who resigned in November.
These exits also come in the wake of mass layoffs at Meta last month. Meta job cuts have exceeded 11,000 or 13% of its workforce.
WhatsApp Pay is a UPI-based payment service that launched in India last February in beta mode. WhatsApp users can link their UPI-enabled bank accounts and transfer funds via the messaging app. WhatsApp supports all popular banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank.
