Mahatme Leaving WhatsApp for New Role at Amazon
A little more than a year after leaving Amazon to oversee WhatsApp’s payment business in India, Manesh Mahatme is reportedly going back to his old company.
That’s according to a report Thursday (Sept. 22) by Reuters, citing an unnamed source who says Mahatme has taken a job as director of product in Amazon India’s eCommerce division.
“Manesh has played an important role in expanding the access to ‘payments on WhatsApp’ in India, and we wish him every success [in] his future endeavors,” a spokesperson for Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, said in a statement given to PYMNTS.
“Payments on WhatsApp is a priority for Meta and we will continue to innovate and drive momentum as part of our broader efforts to bring the ‘next 500 million Indians’ onto the digital payments ecosystem.”
Amazon was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
Read more: Amazon Exec Mahatme Joins Facebook’s WhatsApp As India Payments Director
Mahatme became director of WhatsApp payments in India last year as the company began scaling its operations in that country, its biggest market with more than half a billion users. Prior to that, he spent six years with Amazon Pay in India, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His departure from WhatsApp is happening as the company works to boost its payments offerings while competing with companies like Walmart, Google and Paytm.
Related: Meta Leverages India's JioMart Grocery to Create Connected Commerce Ecosystem
During his time with the company, WhatsApp began offering cash back rewards for peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to attract more Indian users to the app and compete with rivals in that space.
Earlier this year, the company received the blessing of regulators in India to more than double its payments offering to its users in India.
Meta last month announced the debut of its “first end-to-end shopping experience” through WhatsApp, which will let consumers shop and make grocery purchases from Mumbai-based Indian eCommerce company JioMart via chat.