Akshay Mehrotra  - Co-Founder & CEO, EarlySalary

Akshay Mehrotra

Co-Founder & CEO, EarlySalary

More about Akshay Mehrotra

Akshay Mehrotra is the Co-Founder and CEO of EarlySalary, India’s leading consumer lending apps focused on young working professionals. 

He is responsible for devising EarlySalary’s product strategy, and in pursuing his mission of turning his Fintech venture into India’s next unicorn. 

An astute thinker and a keen strategist, Akshay has been the driving force behind the stupendous rise of EarlySalary. He spearheads the company along with Ashish Goyal, another Co- Founder. 

Within a short span of 6 years, Akshay has successfully scaled his Fintech start-up from a small team to more than 300+ young and talented individuals, and from a few lacs in turnover per month to disbursing 0.5 Million loans amounting to over Rs. 160+ crores. 

Akshay has more than 16 years of experience, with large conglomerates across multi-industry domains such as Retail, Consumer Services, Banking, E-commerce, and Insurance. He began his career at Bajaj Allianz as a management trainee and quickly rose to the role of marketing head at an early age. 

He moved on to become the CMO of unicorn start-up, PolicyBazaar.com, and thereafter of India’s largest retailer Future Retail (Big Bazaar), before taking the plunge as an entrepreneur. Akshay has mastered the art of providing simple marketing solutions for complicated problems. In recognition of his business acumen, he was featured in the list of BW BusinessWorld 40 under 40, 2019. 

He was also honored with the ‘Most Talented CMO of the Year’ award in 2013-2014, by CMO Asia. 

Under Akshay’s proficient leadership, EarlySalary has developed cutting-edge products and solutions, which solve complex problems for all stakeholders in the highly volatile lending sector. 

EarlySalary has scaled up significantly under his able guidance and has now reached over 10 Million app downloads and 2.5 Million loan disbursals pan India. 

EarlySalary is the highest-rated App today and has several innovations fueling its growth. Akshay is passionate about developing innovative product strategies and business models in the customer-centric space. 

He is also usually busy crafting EarlySalary’s distinctive philosophy of attracting young and smart professionals, whom he believes play a pivotal role in building new connections, fostering inspiration and discovering missing elements that can add value to EarlySalary’s business strategies, to combat local competition. 

Akshay holds a master's degree in business administration from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. 

Owing to his extensive hands-on experience, he is often invited as a guest speaker by various industry forums to share his valuable experiences and perspectives. 

Akshay is an avid biker & traveler. During his leisure time, he loves to bond with his family and close friends.

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