POWERING YOUR PAYMENTS

PRODUCT LEAD FOR WHATSAPP PAYMENTS IN INDIA, SAN FRANCISCO-BASED RIA MIRCHANDANI CHATS WITH TINA THAKRAR ABOUT HER INTERESTING CAREER RUN, AND HOW SHE FINDS PROFESSIONAL FULFILMENT IN THE WORLD OF FINTECH

- TINA THAKRAR

Soon after demonetization, digital payments in India witnessed phenomenal growth. Payment processing platforms were some of the biggest beneficiaries, operating in an exciting, largely untapped market. The momentum only increased during the pandemic, and online payments became a playground for numerous entrants. One such player is WhatsApp Payments, where 29-year-old Ria Mirchandani leads the product development.

As Product Lead for Whatsapp payments in India, Ria handles vision, strategy, and product development of experiences to help scale the payments product in WhatsApp's largest market. She is spurred not just by the bottom line, but also by her desire to build a financially inclusive product, in a bid to help people across the socio-economic strata to understand, control and protect their finances.

Born in the US and brought up in India, Ria completed her schooling in Mumbai after which she attended Brown University in Rhode Island. Here, she was able to explore her diverse interests by taking classes in 25 different departments, from Physics to Archaeology and Theatre Arts. She graduated with two majors - one in Computer Science and another in Human Migration Studies, the latter being an independently designed major which examined why people move; it was heavily influenced by her grandparents' journey to India during the partition.