Rohit Chadda

Rohit Chadda (born 26 August 1982) is an Indian investment banker and entrepreneur, who is the President & COO of Times Network. He leads the tech business portfolio and AI transformation of Times Group covering verticals like media tech, OTT, health tech, ecommerce, gaming he was the co-founder of online food ordering platform Foodpanda. He is also the founder of omni-channel digital payments platform PayLo. He has been attributed for the turnaround of Zee Digital driving 4x growth in 2 years and bringing Zee's digital business to the second position on ComScore from ninth position making Zee the second largest digital media group in India. He has been featured among Top Tech CEOs of the decade (2010–2020) in India and was featured among Fortune 40 under 40 in 2015. with a degree in computer engineering and worked as a software engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation. In 2007 he joined Indian Institute of Management Calcutta to do his MBA after which he worked at Merrill Lynch as an investment banker in United Kingdom. He took an internal transfer to India in 2011. Foodpanda had raised a total investment of over US$300 million till 2015. Chadda in the middle of 2015 stepped down from day-to-day responsibilities at Foodpanda to launch his digital payments startup. Foodpanda was acquired by its global competitor Delivery Hero in 2016.

Paylo In 2015, he launched an omni-channel digital payments platform PayLo which acquired the in-restaurant payments app Ruplee in March 2016 for an undisclosed sum. PayLo was successful in the wake of demonetisation in India and expanded pan-India before being acquired by Immortal Technologies. PayLo acquired Ruplee before being itself acquired by Immortal Technologies.

Zee Group Chadda took over as CEO of digital publishing of Zee Group in May 2019. Since June 2019, Zee Digital, the online arm of the Zee group, has registered the highest growth year-on-year among the top media publishers in India. Times Internet Limited, Network 18 Group, and India Today Group have grown by 45%, 21%, and 22% respectively from June 2020 over June 2019 while Zee Digital witnessed a growth of 123% over the same period. mark before finally ranking 2nd position in June 2020 in the ComScore rankings among all digital media groups in India. Hipi was first launched within ZEE5 app ecosystem to capitalise on the reach of the OTT platform.

Times Group Chadda took over as President & COO of Times Network in September 2022. health tech, edu tech, OTT, ecommerce while extending the news vertical into business news, tech news targeting Gen Z, early jobbers and first time investors and laying the foundation for the fintech expansion for the brand. ET Now reached 10 million users within the first 20 days of launch and became the No.1 business news channel on YouTube with 200 million views in April and May 2024.

Expanding to health-tech, he launched AI powered daily health companion Health & Me in the presence of actor & fitness enthusiast Milind Soman. Times Network launched college discovery platform unilist.in to enable students and parents search for the right course and institute for their higher education needs. Times Network launched its OTT app Times Play under his leadership. The channel has presence on TV and digital platforms and is being distributed to global markets through partnerships with BOTIM, Distro TV, Yupp TV and Rumble. In India, the channel is available on Jio TV, Jio TV+, Airtel Xtream Play, OTT Play, Dailyhunt. Times Group has launched India's Official Pickleball League affiliated with Indian Pickleball Association and Global Pickelball Federation which shall also be streamed live on Pickleball Now from 1st to 7th Dec 2025.

Investing and speaking Chadda is a mentor at Esselerator, a Startup accelerator by Subhash Chandra Foundation. Esselerator is an initiative by Subhash Chandra, a billionaire Media baron, to promote and support tech entrepreneurs in domains like Media, Fintech and Education. Its powered by TiE Mumbai. Chadda is an angel investor in multiple technology startups like online school aggregator platform SchoolForSure.com. In 2019, he spoke at DPS to students on starting a business. At the time he remained CEO of Zee group's digital business division.

Fintech Leadership Chadda has over two decades of fintech experience spanning digital payments, invest-tech, wealth tech and insure-tech . He acquired Ruplee to venture into digtal payments and launched India's first omni channel payments platform PayLo. PayLo launched in-store payments, One QR - the first interoperable QR payment solution before UPI and a crypto wallet under his tenure . Chadda's first stint in fintech dates to 2005 when he was building PowerSTEPP, a claim management platform for health insurance providers in the US during is tenure at CSC India . Foodpanda did more than 20 acquisitions in his tenure . Chadda led the acquisitions and integrations of Just Eat India and Tastykhana with Foodpanda India He pivoted Ruplee into an omni-channel payments system and built the first interoperable QR code before UPI existed . At Times Group, Chadda has led 2 acquisitions - Digit & Opigo . Several new initiatives after its acquisition in 2023 by Times Group like launching Digit Test Labs, AI powered product discovery, the Digit Shop, B2C expansion of SKOAR, its e-sports initiative has led to Digit's turnaround under his tenure . After launching ET Now's digital business news platform in 2023, Chadda expanded its fintech footprint with the acquisition of Opigo .

Philanthropy Chadda organised a £1 mliion charity bike ride in aid of the British Asian Trust which saw participation by the Prince of Wales. Chadda presented the Prince of Wales with a cycling vest, which was said to be for his grandchildren. Chadda supports a non-profit organisation Mukkamaar founded by Bollywood actress Ishita Sharma that works towards fighting crime against women by teaching free self defence to young girls. Professional Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 Young Food & Grocery Professional of the Year 2014 Fortune 40 under 40 most influential business leaders list 2015 Top 25 Most Talented Ecommerce Professionals in India 2015 Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 Exemplary Achievement in Corporate World 2020 Top Tech CEOs of the Decade in India 10 Most Successful Tech CEOs of The Decade IMPACT Digital Power 100