Slice strengthens top deck, poised for growth in a post-COVID world

Bengaluru-based card payments start-up Slice has strengthened its top leadership team, hiring aggressively across roles. From getting a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to hiring a head of designs, the Das Capital-backed player has invested heavily in building a team poised for a strong round of growth for the company.

Rajan Bajaj, founder of Slice, told Moneycontrol that while the pandemic had put the brakes on his business in the first few months, post-May, business has gone back 150 percent.

Abhirama Bhat, who has cut his teeth at Freecharge, GoIbibo and many other places, joined Slice as the CTO in May. Rahul Sharma, who was previously with Hike and SAP Labs, joined the firm in June. Sharma will be heading the creative design team.

Bajaj is hopeful that his credit card product, designed for millennials, has a massive business opportunity in a post-COVID world and a strong team will help him move towards achieving the targets.

Given that the pandemic has caused many people to lose their jobs, well- funded start-ups are still actively looking for executives to lead roles like data analytics, product management, design and others.

Very recently, another Bengaluru-based neo-banking player, Niyo, spoke about its plans to hire aggressively and double certain teams, which the company believes will help them achieve their goals.

Slice, which has an NBFC licence, has hired Amitava Das to head its collections arm. Das will be responsible for debt recovery for Slice and ensure low delinquency on the books. Das has spent considerable amount of time in the lending business, having worked at Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and non-banking lender InCred just before joining Slice.

Along with the top deck, Balaram Rouniyar and Prateek Singhal have joined the company as associated directors for business finance and debt-raising. Overall, the start-up is a 280-member team currently.

Slice had recently closed a Rs 46 crore funding round from Japanese investor Gunosy Capital. In partnership with banks, it offers credit cards to young people who have joined the workforce for the first time. It currently has 1.8 lakh active customers and has served 2.5 lakh customers.

“We will have to keep investing in building interesting products for our users. For anything with respect to money, they can use our platform,” Bajaj said.