PhonePe has initiated a sweeping leadership reshuffle spanning technology and business verticals as it navigates slower revenue momentum, regulatory changes, and a deferred public listing. The moves coincide with high-profile exits, including former Share.Market chief Ujjwal Jain, who has launched Atyx AI to bring advanced automation to wealth management for private investors and family offices.
Leadership realignment to sharpen product, AI, and customer experience
Senior executive Srijon Biswas has been elevated to Chief Technology Officer, taking charge of engineering and platform reliability after nearly a decade shaping PhonePe’s core infrastructure. Co-founder Rahul Chari assumes a broader mandate as Chief Product and Technology Officer, overseeing product, technology, trust and safety, data sciences, customer experience, and artificial intelligence initiatives—signalling a deeper push into AI-enabled products and operations.
On the business side, Sonika Chandra has been promoted to Chief Business Officer. She will lead a newly consolidated unit that integrates consumer payments with the insurance portfolio, following the exit of long-serving insurance head Vishal Gupta.
The changes follow a series of senior departures in recent months. Gupta left in July 2026 after nearly a decade, citing a desire to return to early-stage building. Earlier, Akash Dongre, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at the PhonePe-owned Indus Appstore, also stepped down. The transitions come at a pivotal time for one of India’s largest fintech firms.
Ujjwal Jain pivots to Atyx AI after steering Share.Market
Jain’s exit has been closely watched across India’s startup circles. He previously co-founded WealthDesk and OpenQ in 2016, focused on model portfolios and quantitative research. PhonePe acquired both in May 2022 to bolster its investments offering, in a deal reported at about ₹5,700 crore ($75 million).
Post-acquisition, Jain led the rollout of Share.Market in 2023, entering a crowded brokerage and mutual funds arena alongside Groww, Zerodha, and Angel One. While Share.Market’s market share remained modest at around 0.5%, it achieved scale on key metrics: about 1.26 million demat accounts, nearly 2.3 million monthly SIPs, mutual fund AUM of ₹5,838 crore as of September 2025, and more than 229,000 active investors by February 2026.
Jain stepped down in May 2026, describing the move as closing a “decade-long Chapter 1” and signalling a shift towards solving broader industry problems. His new venture, Atyx AI, targets private wealth managers and Ultra-HNI family offices rather than retail investors. The platform aims to streamline complex workflows by automating repetitive operational tasks and deploying autonomous AI capabilities for investment teams—positioning itself as institutional infrastructure for wealth advisors.
Financial strain and regulatory shifts weigh on IPO outlook
PhonePe’s restructuring coincides with tighter financials. In FY26, revenue rose 11.5% year-on-year to ₹7,920.48 crore, but total expenses increased to ₹10,588.51 crore, widening net loss to ₹2,791.59 crore from ₹1,727.41 crore a year earlier. The company’s top line was impacted by the discontinuation of rent payments in line with RBI guidance and curbs affecting real-money gaming, both previously meaningful revenue contributors.
Despite the pressure, the Walmart-backed platform remains a dominant UPI and digital payments player, with over 700 million registered users, about 200 million monthly active users, and a merchant network approaching 50 million across India.
PhonePe updated its draft IPO papers with SEBI, with a targeted valuation near $15 billion, but has paused plans amid market volatility, valuation resets, and geopolitical uncertainty that have tempered investor risk appetite.
What the changes signal for fintech and wealth management
The refreshed leadership structure suggests a tighter focus on engineering velocity, AI-driven product development, and customer experience at scale. In parallel, the emergence of Atyx AI underscores how senior fintech operators are pivoting to institutional-grade wealth-tech solutions, an area poised for digital transformation as compliance, data, and portfolio complexity rise.
As PhonePe steadies its core payments franchise and refines its growth playbook, the interplay between in-house AI initiatives and founder-led spinouts is likely to shape competitive dynamics across India’s fintech and wealth management landscape in the coming quarters.
