The Accidental CEO: Byas Nambisan's Journey from Intel to a $200M Ezetap Acquisition

The definitive profile of Byas Nambisan. Explore his journey from Intel exec to Ezetap's CEO, navigating a post-founder era to a major Razorpay exit.

Byas Nambisan’s path to becoming a key figure in India's fintech landscape was anything but conventional. Forged over two decades within the structured, process-driven world of Intel Corporation, his career was that of a corporate stalwart, not a disruptive startup founder. He was the quintessential "big company" man, rising through senior finance roles to become the CFO for Intel's substantial Indian operations and later a Senior Finance Controller for its Mobile Client Platforms division. His journey from this corporate sanctum to the helm of Ezetap, a pioneering payments startup, is a compelling story of pragmatic leadership, disciplined execution, and the successful application of corporate rigor in a dynamic, high-growth environment.

This deep dive into the journey of Byas Nambisan and Ezetap is based on an in-depth conversation on the Founder Thesis podcast.

Check out the video of the conversation here or read on for insights.

From Corporate Stalwart to Startup Captain

Byas Nambisan never intended to leave his life as a "lifetime Intel person." With an MBA from Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business and a Master's in Mechanical Engineering, he was deeply embedded in the corporate world. However, a serendipitous conversation in 2014 with Ezetap's co-founder, Abhijit 'Bobby' Bose, presented an unexpected turn. Contemplating his next move within Intel, Bose encouraged him to consider the burgeoning Indian startup scene. This led Nambisan to join Ezetap not as a founder, but as its Chief Financial Officer, bringing much-needed financial discipline to the fast-growing company.

His entry as a seasoned executive, rather than an original founder, gave him a unique dual perspective. He possessed the dispassionate analytical toolkit of a corporate veteran combined with the intimate, ground-level knowledge of an internal leader. This combination would prove to be his most powerful asset.

The "Co-Pilot to Captain" Transition

The defining moment of Nambisan's career arrived in November 2018. Ezetap faced a leadership vacuum when co-founder and CEO Abhijit Bose departed to lead WhatsApp's operations in India. The board turned to Nambisan, first as interim and then, after a formal search, as the permanent CEO. He eloquently described the profound psychological shift of this new responsibility.

"In my previous role, Bobby was captain and I was co-pilot... The nice thing about being in a co-pilot's role is sometimes you can say, 'You know what Bobby, the ship is yours.'... Now that I am in the captain's chair, it is always my problem. That was the biggest difference, honestly."

His leadership was so instrumental in navigating the company through this turbulent post-founder era that the Ezetap board officially nominated him as a Co-Founder in 2022, a formal acknowledgment of his role in bringing the company "to the forefront of India's dynamic fintech landscape."

Ezetap's Journey: From POS Pioneer to Omnichannel Powerhouse

Founded in 2011, Ezetap’s mission was to solve India’s last-mile payment problem. With 300 million debit and credit cards in circulation but only 600,000 payment terminals, the market was ripe for disruption. Ezetap's answer was a low-cost mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) card reader, engineered for under $50, a fraction of the cost of traditional devices.

The company's journey was marked by strategic pivots and growth. A key early move was focusing on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model rather than relying on thin margins from transaction fees (MDR). This foresight proved critical.

"We believe MDR is under pressure in markets like India... That isn't going to be our primary focus. We are going to focus on software as a service and just charging a subscription fee to our banks... a hundred rupees per month per terminal."

This recurring revenue model provided stability, especially when transaction volumes dropped during events like the COVID-19 pandemic. When Nambisan took over as CEO, he made several hard but necessary calls. The most significant was ceasing in-house hardware manufacturing, as it had "stopped making economic sense" in an increasingly commoditized market. This decision, while difficult, sharpened the company's focus on its true moat: its powerful, device-agnostic software platform and its pioneering payments Software Development Kit (SDK) that created deep, sticky integrations with enterprise clients.

Funding and Scale: The Numbers Behind the Story

Over its lifetime, Ezetap raised between $51 million and $66.4 million in funding from a roster of top-tier investors, including Social Capital, Helion Venture Partners, American Express, and Peter Thiel.

Under Nambisan’s leadership, the company's subscription-based annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew significantly, crossing $10 million with 50-60% year-over-year growth. By the time of its acquisition, the company was a dominant force in the market, processing over $10 billion in annual transaction volume across 500,000 touchpoints in India and the UAE.

The Razorpay Acquisition: The Omnichannel Holy Grail

In August 2022, Ezetap's journey as an independent company culminated in its acquisition by Razorpay for approximately $150 million to $200 million. The deal was a landmark event in Indian fintech, driven by a compelling strategic vision: the creation of a true omnichannel payments platform. Razorpay, a giant in the online world, needed a robust offline presence to serve merchants in a market where the lines between digital and physical commerce were blurring. Ezetap was the perfect fit.

The entire 300-person Ezetap team joined Razorpay, forming the new Razorpay POS unit with Nambisan at the helm. This merger created one of the few companies in the world with a formidable presence in both online and offline payments, poised to define the future of unified commerce in India. The synergy proved powerful, with the Razorpay POS business reporting 60% growth in FY23.

Listen now!

Other Ways to Listen:

Apple Podcast | Amazon Music

Some of the things he shared:-

1. Winning a contract with SBI

2. Becoming device agnostic

3. Transition from CFO to CEO way of thinking

4. Tactics for a successful acquisition

Additional readings:-

1. Pause and evolve: How Byas Nambisan changed fintech startup Ezetap’s course after its founders' exit

2. Razorpay buys Ezetap to tap into offline payments

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Until the next founder's thesis📕,

Your host, AD