Ex-BharatPe Engineering Head Geetanshu Singla Joins Identity Startup OTPless as CTO Amid Leadership Rejig
BENGALURU — Identity and access management (IAM) startup OTPless has announced the appointment of former BharatPe engineering head Geetanshu Singla as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Singla’s entry into the Bengaluru-based firm marks a significant reunion with former colleagues and founders, coming on the heels of a broader, high-stakes leadership overhaul at the enterprise authentication company.
Singla officially assumes the CTO role nearly ten months after his predecessor, Anubhav Mathur, stepped down from the position in January of this year. His appointment is expected to bolster the technological backbone of OTPless as the firm scales its operations within India’s rapidly growing digital authentication and fraud-prevention market.
The Main Facts: A Homecoming for Fintech Veterans
The leadership transition at OTPless highlights a tight-knit ecosystem of alumni hailing from fintech unicorn BharatPe. Singla’s appointment reunites him with OTPless co-founders Satyam Nathani and Tanmay Sagar, with whom he previously collaborated during his tenure at BharatPe.
Reflecting on his new role and the familiarity of the workplace, Singla shared his enthusiasm on professional networking platform LinkedIn:
"I have worked very closely with Satyam Nathani and Tanmay Sagar during my BharatPe days. We have built together, solved some really hard problems together and spent countless hours discussing tech, scale and products. So joining OTPless doesn’t really feel like joining a new company. In many ways, it feels like coming back home."
Singla served as the head of engineering at BharatPe before stepping down in 2023. His arrival at OTPless bridges a legacy of shared corporate DNA, given that OTPless co-founders Bhavik Koladiya, Satyam Nathani, and Tanmay Sagar were all early founding members of the fintech giant.
Chronology of Events: From BharatPe to GenWise, Syfe, and OTPless
To understand the trajectory that led Geetanshu Singla to the CTO position at OTPless, one must examine a timeline defined by high-profile startup ventures, sudden pivots, and strategic career moves across the Indian technology ecosystem.
1. The BharatPe Foundation
During his tenure at BharatPe, Singla managed complex engineering challenges, scaling systems to support exponential growth in India’s merchant payments landscape. It was during this period that he forged deep professional relationships with Nathani and Sagar, laying the groundwork for future entrepreneurial and corporate collaborations.
2. The GenWise Chapter
Following his departure from BharatPe in 2023, Singla ventured into consumer entrepreneurship. Alongside fellow BharatPe alumni Nehul Malhotra and Rajat Jain, he co-founded GenWise, a lifestyle and super-app tailored specifically for senior citizens to make them digital-ready.
- Funding: The startup captured the attention of marquee investors, securing a $3.5 million seed funding round led by Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India), with backing from prominent angel investors like Kunal Shah.
- The Shutdown: Despite early momentum and strong investor backing, the macro-environment and business model constraints caught up with the elderly-focused lifestyle app, leading to a shutdown of operations in December 2025.
3. Stint at Syfe and Transition to OTPless
Following the winding down of GenWise, Singla transitioned into institutional tech leadership, serving as an engineering leader at Singapore-based wealthtech platform Syfe for approximately one year. His stint at Syfe further sharpened his expertise in enterprise-grade scalability, security, and financial technology infrastructure before he answered the call to join OTPless in late 2024.
Supporting Data: Inside OTPless’s Growth and Financial Health
OTPless enters this new phase of technological leadership backed by solid fundamental metrics, a growing customer roster, and steady financial performance.
Core Offerings and Value Proposition
Founded in 2021, OTPless addresses a persistent friction point in consumer internet applications: user authentication and onboarding drop-offs. The Bengaluru-based startup provides software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow enterprises to bypass traditional, friction-heavy multi-factor authentication methods.
- Key Offerings: Silent network authentication, WhatsApp-based authentication, device intelligence, and passkeys.
- Core Objective: The platform aims to radically reduce enterprise dependence on traditional One-Time Passwords (OTPs), PINs, and static passwords, simultaneously protecting platforms against sophisticated digital fraud and improving conversion rates during user sign-ups and high-value transactions.
Scale, Revenue, and Profitability
OTPless has established a commanding presence within the Indian consumer tech ecosystem:
- User Base: The startup claims to have authenticated more than 300 million (30 Cr) mobile users to date.
- Enterprise Clientele: Its B2B client list features prominent Indian tech giants and unicorns, including quick-commerce leader Zepto, logistics platform Shiprocket, social media platform ShareChat, fintech player Navi, edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah, and e-commerce platform Meesho.
- Financial Health: In an era where many early-stage startups struggle with cash burns, OTPless reports an annualized revenue run-rate (ARR) of approximately ₹36 crore and claims to have maintained profitability across the preceding two quarters.
Funding Milestones
To date, OTPless has successfully raised over $6 million in total funding. Its cap table includes institutional investors such as Venture Highway, White Venture, FJ Labs, SIDBI, and Piper Serica, among others.
Official Responses and Executive Rejig
Singla’s appointment as CTO does not happen in a vacuum; it is the cornerstone of a comprehensive, top-level corporate reshuffle designed to realign leadership competencies at OTPless for its next growth cycle.
The organizational restructuring over the past month includes:
- The CEO Transition: In a major development last month, co-founder Bhavik Koladiya stepped down from his role as Chief Executive Officer. Fellow co-founder Satyam Nathani stepped up to assume the mantle of CEO, steering the company’s overarching vision.
- COO Appointment: Co-founder Tanmay Sagar was elevated to Chief Operating Officer (COO), taking charge of daily execution, operational scalability, and client delivery.
- CBO Elevation: Strengthening the executive bench further, Manas Poddar was promoted to the position of Chief Business Officer (CBO) last week, overseeing market expansion and strategic partnerships.
The addition of Singla as CTO is viewed by industry watchers as the final puzzle piece in this executive reorganization, consolidating technical leadership under a trusted veteran who understands the startup’s foundational architecture.
Industry Implications: The Booming Identity and Access Management (IAM) Market
The structural changes and executive appointments at OTPless take place against the backdrop of a booming macroeconomic sector. The Identity and Access Management (IAM) market in India is experiencing unprecedented demand driven by stringent data privacy regulations, the rise of digital-first consumer behaviors, and an escalating threat landscape characterized by sophisticated cyber fraud.
According to market research projections, the Indian IAM market is poised for exponential growth, forecasted to balloon into a $1.7 billion opportunity by 2030.
Strategic Imperatives for the New Leadership
As cyber threats evolve and enterprises increasingly demand frictionless, passwordless authentication experiences, the leadership team of Nathani, Sagar, Poddar, and now Singla will face critical strategic imperatives:
- Technological Scalability: With hundreds of millions of users already authenticated, Singla must ensure that OTPless’s infrastructure scales seamlessly to handle billions of annual API calls without compromising latency or security uptime.
- Product Diversification: Moving beyond traditional WhatsApp and silent network authentication, the firm will need to innovate continuously in device intelligence and passkey deployment to stay ahead of global technology trends.
- Consolidating Profitability: Maintaining the company’s recent streak of profitability while aggressively capturing market share in the $1.7 billion IAM ecosystem will test the operational and fiscal discipline of the newly configured executive suite.
By bringing Geetanshu Singla back into the fold, OTPless has signaled a commitment to technical excellence and cultural cohesion. As the startup navigates its next phase under Satyam Nathani’s leadership, the combined expertise of its veteran founders and engineering heads positions the company to capture a substantial share of India’s burgeoning digital identity market.
