Mohit Jain, a former Axis Bank senior executive, has joined Freecharge, an Axis Bank-owned payments firm, as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Jain revealed this on the social networking site LinkedIn.

Jain succeeds Siddharth Mehta, who held the office for over four years. Mehta resigned from Freecharge in February of this year. According to the Registrar of Companies, Mehta and former Axis Bank executive Mohit Bedi founded Gokiwi Tech in November of last year.

Before joining Freecharge, Jain worked for Axis Bank for over 16 years. He was previously the head of Axis Bank’s Bharat Enterprises and Institutional Businesses. According to his LinkedIn profile, as part of the bigger Bharat Banking mission, he pushed to scale up the corporate agri/MSME business in semi-urban and rural areas. He was in charge of establishing new business lines (such as co-lending), growing geographical presence, and diversifying the consumer segment. He was also instrumental in the group’s digital transition.

In 2017, Axis Bank acquired Snapdeal-owned mobile wallet Freecharge in an all-cash acquisition worth Rs 373 crore to bolster its position in the payments market.

According to reports, the move offered Axis Bank with access to Freecharge’s 54 million clients, technology, and human resources, as well as a significant boost to its digital journey.

Personal loans and insurance were also on the platform’s long-term plan. However, these have failed to gain traction and size. Freecharge reported a growth of 23.2 per cent in operational revenue to Rs 287 crore in FY22, but profits fell to Rs 23 crore from Rs 37 crore in FY21.

The Reserve Bank of India rejected Freecharge’s application for a payment aggregator licence in February, and the company was told to reapply within 120 days.