Paytm's chief product officer and head of consumer goods, Shreyas Srinivasan, has stepped down. After Paytm completed the sale of Insider.in to the online food delivery behemoth Zomato, Srinivasan, the founder of the live event and ticketing site Insider.in, made the decision to resign.

Srinivasan formally left his job at Insider in August, and last Monday was his last day at Paytm. The Rs 2,000-crore deal was completed in the second quarter.

"When the deal between Zomato and Paytm Entertainment closed in August, it felt like the right time to take a break, fix the technology debt of my body, and re-discover a passion I can chase for the next two decades," Srinivasan wrote in a LinkedIn post reflecting on his departure.

Both tech behemoths based in the National Capital Region gain from the deal. For the upcoming year, Paytm will continue to offer entertainment tickets on its app and associated platforms. In the meantime, consumers will gradually switch to Zomato's new "District" app, which is intended to complement Zomato's "going out" offerings.

Paytm's financial performance has also improved as a result of the sale of Insider.in; for the quarter ending September 2024, the firm made its first-ever net profit of Rs 930 crore, which is a substantial improvement over its Rs 290 crore loss the previous year. Paytm's Q2 loss would have been Rs 495 crore, a 70% rise over the same quarter last year, had it not experienced this extraordinary gain.

From Paytm to Insider

In 2010, Srinivasan started his career as a director of the talent management company Only Much Louder (OML). As founder and CEO, Srinivasan led OML's 2014 launch of Insider.in, a cutting-edge ticketing and events platform. "I was uniquely positioned to build a product in this space," he remarked. Every component of the ticketing stack needed new solutions in order to build a new platform.

Insider.in grew fourfold in two years under Srinivasan's direction, especially when the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. In 2017, Srinivasan became the division's CEO when Paytm paid Rs 35 crore to purchase Insider. He assumed a more expansive position at Paytm in 2022 as head of consumer products and chief product officer.