Razorpay has announced the elevation of Apuarv Sethi to the role of chief marketing officer. Based in Bengaluru, Sethi will now lead the company’s marketing and SME business growth strategy across India and Southeast Asia, with a focus on AI-led marketing innovation, customer engagement and business expansion.
Sethi has been closely associated with Razorpay’s brand and growth journey since joining the company as vice president of marketing in April 2021. In his most recent role as senior vice president - marketing, he led brand strategy, product marketing, communications, performance marketing and customer engagement initiatives while driving SME-focused growth across business verticals.
In his expanded mandate, Sethi will oversee Razorpay’s broader go-to-market strategy, ecosystem initiatives, revenue acceleration and growth frameworks across markets and product categories. The appointment reflects the company’s focus on strengthening brand relevance and scaling customer engagement strategies as digital payment ecosystems continue to evolve across India and Southeast Asia.
The company stated that Sethi’s role will include exploring AI-powered marketing capabilities to reshape customer experiences, predictive engagement models and intelligent growth systems. The strategy aims to strengthen customer acquisition, retention and long-term trust across business segments and geographies.
During his tenure, Sethi played a key role in sharpening Razorpay’s positioning through insight-driven and culturally contextual storytelling. He led several brand and marketing campaigns, including ‘Backing India’s Boldest’, which highlighted 37 Indian startups and founders during major cricketing moments. He also spearheaded the AI-led print campaign ‘#ImaginedThroughAI’ and ‘Get Paid, Not Played’, a campaign focused on hidden fees in cross-border payments.
Alongside campaign development, Sethi contributed to building integrated marketing capabilities spanning brand, ecosystem, growth and performance marketing. His work has focused on strengthening Razorpay’s engagement with entrepreneurs, SMEs and digital-first businesses.
Prior to joining Razorpay, Sethi held leadership positions at Flipkart, Mindtree and Manipal Global Education Services. Across these roles, he worked on brand strategy, go-to-market planning, monetisation, loyalty programmes and business growth initiatives across sectors including fintech, SaaS, e-commerce and education.
Rahul Kothari said: “Apuarv has played an instrumental role in shaping Razorpay’s brand journey over the years. His deep understanding of customer behavior, combined with a strategic and creative vision, has helped us build a brand that resonates with small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country. As Razorpay strives for global expansion, strong brand leadership will be more important than ever. Apuarv’s ability to blend storytelling with business impact makes him the ideal leader to drive our marketing vision forward. We hope to see Razorpay building meaningful customer connections under his leadership.”
Sethi added: “The future of marketing won’t be built by AI alone, nor by human instinct in isolation, but by the powerful intersection of both. At Razorpay, we’ve always believed that the most meaningful innovation is the kind that solves real problems for businesses. As we step into an increasingly AI-native world, the opportunity before us is to reimagine how brands connect, build trust, and create value at scale - while keeping human creativity and empathy at the core. For India’s small businesses, this is a transformative moment. My focus will be on shaping marketing that is not just smarter and more efficient, but deeply intuitive and purposeful, and drive meaningful SME brand growth - helping India’s disruptive entrepreneurs unlock their next phase of growth and scale with confidence.”
Razorpay said it remains focused on expanding its digital payments and financial solutions ecosystem while driving innovation and ecosystem collaboration across India and Southeast Asia markets.
