Meet Robin Gandhi, Our New Chief Product Officer

To drive forward our mission of making global payments seamless and continue innovating on our next-generation payments platform and infrastructure, we’re excited to have Robin Gandhi join Nium’s executive leadership as Chief Product Officer. Having worked across multiple industries at the nexus of product, engineering, design, operations, and strategy, Robin brings deep experience building and delivering payments and expense solutions, in addition to valuable management and entrepreneurial expertise.

As he joins the team, we talked to Robin about the importance of being a trusted payments provider, commitment to customer success, and of course, how the company is innovating for the future of frictionless global commerce.

Q1. What key opportunities would you like to focus on in 2022?

Robin: The B2B payments market is a massive opportunity that we see today, especially given how fragmented it is globally.  As we’ve seen payments across all segments become more digital, especially over the last 2 years with COVID, it’s clear that businesses need to digitize and revolutionize the way they think about B2B payments. The hardest part about moving money across geographies is getting the right licenses and partnerships in place to meet the regulatory requirements of each market.  We already have a lot of that in place, and I’d like us to take even more advantage of that set of licenses to make it even easier for businesses to transact globally.   

Q2. What about Nium is unique when it comes to the seamless movement of money for businesses?

Robin: As I said, Prajit and the Nium team already had the foresight to recognize that if you want to facilitate global B2B payments, you need to have direct licenses in as many markets as possible. If you can take those licenses and then enable your end customers to utilize that functionality through a modern technology stack, you can really disrupt a market that has not had a ton of innovation in the past. When you bring together bank disbursements, cards disbursements, card issuance, and even crypto, you realize that these are all areas that don’t have a clear leader in terms of the ability to provide those services across the globe.  Between our licenses and tech stack, we think we can do something different from the rest of the competition.

Q3. With Nium offering crypto-as-a-service, what are your views on the future of crypto in global payments?

Robin: With about 3% of the world’s GDP in crypto today, it is clear that this space is no longer just a fringe activity. While cryptocurrencies are still generally speculative assets, very smart people are actively working on ways that crypto can help facilitate the movement of money. You’re seeing governments more seriously look at digital currencies, and it is likely that there will be a major country or two, probably in Asia, that will make digital currencies a real thing in the next 12 to 18 months.  For a company like Nium which specializes in B2B payments, especially given our roots in Asia, we need to start thinking and building for this future.  This is not going to be the core of our business today, but we need to be at the forefront of the latest innovations in our space to service our customers and move their businesses forward.  We’re already moving a lot of fiat currency under the current regulatory constructs, so Nium is actually a pretty good partner within the ecosystem as we slowly move to introduce crypto as a method of money movement over time.

Q4. How do you define customer success as a CPO in the fintech space?

Robin: Payments for our customers need to be invisible, simple, and seamless as they use our products.  They shouldn’t have to think about what licenses they need, how they should get into specific markets, what the complexities are, or what regulations or functionality are required. Great fintech companies not only provide the best technology, but they need to fully understand each market they operate in and ensure an unparalleled level of reliability so that businesses can trust them across the board. We want to provide solutions that enable all companies to tap into providing fintech experiences for their end customers faster and more efficiently than they ever could if they had to do it on their own.

Q5. Lastly, tell us a bit about your personal journey towards the fascinating world of fintech?

Robin: Before moving out to Silicon Valley, I spent a significant amount of my career in consulting between Accenture and the Mitchell Madison Group. After going to business school in France and Singapore at INSEAD, I made my way to the Bay Area to really dive into innovation and entrepreneurship. I initially started by building and selling a social media strategy consulting business. As social media started cooling, about 12 years ago, I jumped into payments with some amazing opportunities at Digital River, Adyen and TripActions, and I’m excited to take this next step in my journey with Nium!

About Nium
Nium is a leading embedded fintech company that provides banks, payment providers, and businesses of any size with access to global payment services. Its modular platform powers frictionless commerce, helping businesses pay and get paid across the globe with services for pay-outs, pay-ins, card issuance, and banking-as-a-service. Once connected to the Nium platform, businesses have the ability to pay out in more than 100 currencies to over 190 countries – 85 of which in real time. Funds can be received in 27 markets, including Southeast Asia, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, India, and the US. Nium’s growing card issuance business is already available in 34 countries, including Europe (SEPA), the UK, Australia and Singapore. Nium’s license portfolio covers 11 of the world’s jurisdictions, enabling seamless global payments and rapid integration, regardless of geography.