Former Yes Bank senior president joins Rubique as COO

One-stop online marketplace providing technology-enabled end-to-end solutions to financing needs of individuals and SMEs, Rubique, on Tuesday announced the appointment of former Yes Bank, senior president and chief financial inclusion officer, Ajay Desai as its chief operating officer (COO).

Desai is a veteran banker with 20+ years of experience and until recently, he was working as senior president and chief financial inclusion officer of Yes Bank.

The appointment is envisioned to leverage Desai's exceptional expertise in SME, financial exclusion and fintech to bolster Rubique's growth in the fintech industry.

As COO, he will help enhance the company's reach into unexplored segments. The main focus would be deployment of technology interventions/solutions to address the credit gap.

Desai will work closely with Manav Jeet, managing director and CEO, to ensure smooth functioning of the group's operations, develop synergies across businesses and drive performance.

"We are extremely delighted to have Ajay on board. Rubique's technology ambition for SME financing coupled with Ajay's expertise in the space, will help team Rubique to bring efficient and advanced technology solutions for this category. His experience will play a vital role in further enhancing overall growth and augment the company's profitability and operating efficiencies. As we move to the next phase in our journey, we are excited to have someone like Ajay amongst in senior leadership team," said Manav Jeet, MD and CEO, Rubique.

"India is one of the fastest growing fintech markets in the world. In my earlier initiatives with Yes Bank, I've demonstrated how technology can be the game changer to reach larger audience as well as address the 'Last Miles' problems efficiently. Our innovative MUDRA Loan program, YES LEAP touched about two million families across 260 districts with cumulative disbursement of Rs. 5200 crores," said Desai.

"Another innovation, YES MONEY has facilitated remittances worth Rs. 16250 crores for 20 lakh users through 40000+ touch points. These next to impossible projects were seamlessly executed mainly because of smart and efficient use of technology. And with Rubique, I see a bigger opportunity to scale up, given its very well established fintech edge. Moreover, Rubique has a very strong focus on forming long term partnerships, revenue generation and cost-control, which is rarely seen in any fintech company. I look forward to this challenging journey with Rubique and lead interesting assignments in this ever growing market of the fintech," he added.

A professional career spanning 20+ years across banking and rural development sectors, Desai has been responsible for driving several initiatives to boost financial inclusion in both urban and rural banking in the country.

With technology at its core, Rubique realises that there is a strong gap in SME credit assessment and hence plans to invest further into technology and data to build technology and data solutions to make the process more transparent and seamless.

Till date, the company has processed over 100,000 applications, disbursed Rs. 2,500+ crores worth of loans and signed up about 75,000+ cards across 89+ financial institutions.

Rubique's business has seen a fourfold increase year-on-year and it plans to increase its footprint to 100 cities by the end of the financial year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)