Former Google head Amit Singhal joins Paytm

Former head of search at Google Amit Singhal is the latest to join the Paytm board. The company is looking forward to strengthening its financial and technology management; a top Goldman Sachs executive is also likely to join the board soon.

The Paytm board currently has CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, SAIF Partners Ravi Adusumalli, and Vivek Mathur, AliPay’s Jing Xiandong and Peng Yijie, In-Mobi’s Naveen Tewari, WhatsApp’s Neeraj Arora, Sapphire Ventures’ Jai Das and Tata Group’s Ratan Tata.

“Amit is a pioneer in the technology industry and we are incredibly excited to welcome him toPayTm’s board. We believe his strong expertise in artificial intelligence and experience in building large, deeply technical teams will be extremely valuable to Paytm as we continue to grow rapidly,” CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was quoted saying.

Earlier this month,PayTm appointed Madhur Deora as its Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President. Deora was earlier associated with Citigroup as its Managing Director.

Singhal joined Google in 2000 and was named a Google Fellow as a reward for re-writing the search engine in 2001. In 2011, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. Fortune named Singhal one of the smartest people in tech. In 2011, he was given the Outstanding Achievement in Science and Technology Award at The Asian Awards. In addition to this, he was also elected as one of the members of the National Academy of Engineering.

“I have always admired PayTm for its innovative payment products and vision for financial inclusion. I’m delighted to be joining their board,” said Singhal in a statement.