on Friday said it has elevated Bhavesh Gupta, CEO of Paytm Lending, to take on the leadership for the offline payments vertical in addition to his existing responsibilities. The company said it also plans to hire 30 senior leaders for product, technology and business roles across payments and financial services.

“One97 Communications Limited that owns the brand Paytm, India’s leading digital ecosystem for consumers and merchants, further strengthens its focus on offline payments and financial services,” a regulatory filing said.

The company has consolidated leadership of its offline payments business with lending, with an aim to increase penetration of credit to its 23 million merchants, it added.

The filing said Gupta has led the company’s lending vertical, which has reached over USD 1 billion of annualised run-rate of disbursals through the company’s platform.

Before joining Paytm, he had over 22 years of experience in the financial sector with major lenders like IDFC Bank and

.

“After over a decade of association with Paytm, Renu Satti has expressed her desire to take a career break. Paytm is thankful for her years of expertise, dedication and contribution in the growth of Paytm and wishes her the best for her future endeavours,” the filing said.

Paytm noted that “this is the only voluntary senior exit in the company in recent times, and the management team is greatly augmented by several recent additions in offline payments and financial services”.

“As a measure of reward for their performance, Paytm has recently promoted 25 colleagues to Senior Vice President and Vice President positions, taking the senior management team count to over 150. The company is further planning to hire over 30 senior leaders for product, technology and business roles,” it said.

A Paytm spokesperson said the company is excited about the accelerated growth of credit access to merchants, which has led to the consolidation of its offline payments and credit businesses under Bhavesh’s leadership.

Paytm remains committed to the goal of bringing half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy, and drive inclusion in digital payments and financial services, the company said.