BigPay appoints new acting group CEO

Capital A venture company BigPay has appointed Zubin Rada Krishnan as acting Group CEO, according to a statement by the company. 

Krishnan, who was the Malaysia country head for BigPay the past year, will succeed Salim Dhanani who stepped down in February.

Don't miss: BigPay jumps into crypto scene with new top-up feature 

“It has been an immensely humbling experience serving as the CEO of BigPay, securing capital to scale, developing a suite of financial services for our customers and diversifying revenue streams since inception," said Dhanani. "I trust that the amazing team I’ve had the privilege to work with will ensure that we have a sustainable business model scaling within the AirAsia and Capital A ecosystem as BigPay embarks on the next chapter with the new leadership.”

Before joining BigPay, Krishnan was a partner at Boston Consulting Group for over six years, where he focused on financial services, including: the design of digital banks in Singapore & Malaysia; large-scale bank operating model transformations; and the build and launch of innovative digital products.

He was also the co-founder of Tuas Capital Partners, a private equity fund. Before that, he helped set up a new subsidiary of Hong Leong Bank in Vietnam and supported Malaysia’s last major retail banking merger. He also spent time in KPMG Business Advisory where he supported financial institutions across the financial risk and strategy aspect. 

"I am excited to be given this opportunity to drive BigPay’s mission. I will leverage my nearly 20 years of experience across financial services and capital markets to better provide our customers with the accessible and supportive products they need to live better lives," said Krishnan.

He added that he is looking forward to working with the team and they deepen and expand their footprint in Malaysia and across Asean while also planning a launch in Thailand later this year, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines.

The news comes as BigPay sees a season of growth. In November last year, BigPay introduced crypto top-ups as its latest feature. In partnership with licensed crypto payment gateway TripleA, BigPay users can convert their crypto assets into cash to spend using their BigPay debit cards, without having to go through the typically tedious verification process. TripleA is licenced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as a digital payment token provider.

The cryptocurrencies currently accepted for top-up are Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, and Tether, with plans to expand the accepted currencies in the near future. The latest feature comes as an addition to BigPay’s existing two top-up methods – credit and debit cards. According to BigPay, the launch of the new feature will be "a transparent conversion process" that does not entail hidden fees for the user as is seen in many crypto to fiat transactions.

Related articles:
BigPay cashes in with new digital and social partner in MY and SG
Farmhouse, Costa Coffee and BigPay bust out their own take of #SpotifyWrapped
BigPay bags US$100m funding to boost challenger bank position in SEA