Sunil Kulkarni, Partner
Sunil Kulkarni is currently the CEO (Designate) – SRO* and Head, Business Correspondent Federation of India (BCFI). He is also having following advisory roles:
- Strategic Advisor – Payments and Digital Banking to Fincare Small Finance Bank. (https://www.fincarebank.com/advisory-team)
- Strategic advisory services in Fintech and Payments space to select initial & growth stage start-ups companies.
- Operating Partner to a UAE based Fund (https://nimaicapital.com/team) that is investing in Financial Services in Africa
- Strategic Advisor to one of the largest Global Technology consumer company
- Senior Advisor to a New Age Mid-Size (US$ 200 Million loan book) NBFC belonging to a large Industrial house in India
- Strategic Advisor and Mentor to a Neo Banking Start-up in India for sub-urban/rural India
Sunil has over 35 years of cross-industry experience in technology-led businesses. In his last executive assignment (Dec 2019), he was the Joint Managing Director for Oxigen Services, a company he helped build over 15 years. He took charge of Oxigen Services (then known as India Prepaid Services Pvt Ltd) as CEO in 2004. He and the Chairman, jointly decided to launch in India’s first e-Distribution Network for mobile recharge coupons and its dispensation over Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, PC and SMS. Sunil is also referred to as the techno-savvy brain behind developing a successful business model, using Technology, for varied services & products, including Oxigen’s Mobile Wallet, an innovative payment mechanism and prepaid wallet, accessible online/on-mobile way back in 2008 when there were no smart phones.
He successfully led the company’s business and was also the architect for the technology solution development. He alongside the Oxigen core team converted Oxigen from a Recharges/BillPay retail aggregation company, to an integrated Branchless Banking & Payment Solutions company. He was also responsible for taking the company to its next greenfield opportunity in Domestic & International Remittances, Merchant Payments, Aadhaar enabled payments and Loyalty, propelling Oxigen into its next growth phase. Before taking the role of CEO-BCFI, he was the founding member & Director on board of the BC Federation of India and also co-chaired Prepaid Payments Instruments (PPI) committee in Payments Council of India (PCI). He has contributed through PCI, enabling environment for PPI industry with his interactions with government and regulator.
He actively participated in Mobile Payments Forum of India (MPFI) in 2007-10 for facilitating RBI’s first prepaid payments instruments (PPI) guidelines in 2009. He also co-chaired the Prepaid Payments Instruments (Mobile Wallets) Committee in the Payments Council of India (PCI) and through his interactions with government and regulator during and post demonetisation, made an immense contribution to creating an enabling environment for the Digital Payments/Wallet industry.
1986-2004: Prior to joining Oxigen, Sunil served as General Manager-Marketing & Business Development in Motorola India’s Wireless Infrastructure business for 9 years, starting in 1995. He looked after Business Development, Business Strategy and Product Management functions for GSM & CDMA wireless technologies. He started his professional journey in 1986 with Siemens Ltd., where he last served as the Head of Semi-Conductor Division.
Sunil is an Engineering Graduate in Electronics & Communication with Gold medal in 1986 from Jodhpur and has done Management Education Program (1992-93) from Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), Ahmedabad, India.
*SRO: Self-Regulatory Organization, NPCI: National Payments Corporation of India
You may get hyperlinked my LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunil-kulkarni-12a3291
