Leadership That Inspires Trust and Transformation
Rahul Mutha is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aurus, a leader in providing innovative payment solutions that are ranked among the top 5 payment orchestration platforms. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Aurus’ customers include Fortune 500 companies in Retail, Grocery, C-Stores and Restaurant Chains.
Aurus’s origins go back to 2000 when it was founded by Rahul in his house garage with 2 employees. Today the company has scaled up to 800 employees. It has been a story of unprecedented growth, where Rahul’s vision to excel and the supportive leadership was the key to script the success story.
Under Rahul’s leadership, Aurus has built AurusPay™, a PCI PA-DSS and P2PE Certified payment processing platform integrated with the major payment processors in the United States and 20 countries around the world. Over the years Rahul invented and received several patents related to security and PCI scope reduction of POS systems and Fuel Dispensers, (Patent# 9424577, 9171304, 9135615, 8543461). AurusPay platform is installed across thousands of merchants in North America, South America and Europe.
Rahul has earned his Graduation in Electronics Engineering from the University of Pune and a Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. Before founding Aurus, Rahul served as the principal consultant at Emergent (Datawarehouse Consulting Group), which was acquired by Keane Consulting (NTT Data). At Emergent, Rahul focused on performance tuning of large scale Datawarehouse systems and high-density computing platforms. As part of his Master's Research Program with NASA and JPL, Rahul has co-published an IEEE paper on “Modeling of semiconductor devices degradation in outer space”.
As the co-founder and President/COO of Aurus, Punam Mutha oversees the company’s financial, human resources, legal and compliance departments for both in the US and India offices.
Punam brings in 23+ years of experience in Information Technology encompassing IT services, product development and consulting. She possesses a strong technical background in working with payment processing, point of sale (POS) and retail organizations and Punam has also provided consulting services for leading financial services organizations.
After a decade of technical contribution to Aurus she moved sides to operations and finance. Punam clears the pathway for every Aurus’ business initiative whether it is office expansions or entering new geographies, making it seem effortless. Her financial astute has enabled the company to grow organically and remain debt free. Her acumen and operational expertise makes Aurus’ growth smooth and seamless.
With her relationship management skills, Punam has successfully and continuously restructured and innovated Human Resources, Finance, Operations departments in India and USA to keep up with Aurus’ ever growing business demands. On the other hand, she has ensured that Aurus continues to give back to the community through Aurus sponsored and Aurus’ customers’ charitable events and initiatives.
Before joining Aurus, Punam served as Project Manager and Technical Lead for more than five years for Infosys Technologies. Punam has earned her graduation with Honors in Bachelors of Engineering (Computers) from Pune Institute of Computer Technology, Pune University.
With 18+ years of experience in managing and developing solutions solving complex payment problems for clients, Paresh focuses on Aurus Services Business, which provides design, analysis, development and maintenance of traditional POS solutions, payment terminal applications, mobile wallets, mobile POS and CRM systems for the restaurant, retail and health care industries. The security of customer data and financial information is common to all the mentioned developments.
Paresh's strong Project Management, Service Delivery and Business Analysis skills with careful development and the nurturing of key characteristics, behaviours, and best practices helped Aurus build the high-performance Services team of 100+ engineers. Paresh is proficient in Software Development Life cycle (SDLC) project management for various types of SDLC methodologies including Waterfall and Agile. Paresh's excellent communication with the stakeholders provides accurate information regarding the ongoing initiatives, scope management and risks.
It's very frequent for our AurusPay clients to desire to launch an innovative service that provides a competitive advantage. Here's where Paresh’s team comes into the role to develop the required customized solution, to the satisfaction of clients.
During his tenure in the software industry, prior to Aurus, Paresh served as a senior software developer for Six Cube Technologies, an Internet Marketing Company and Asha Automation. Paresh received a Bachelor’s of Science and a Masters in Computer Science degree from Pune University. He is also a certified developer on Verifone and Micros POS solutions.
Vishal joined Aurus in 2004. He has successfully lead the company into its next phase as an innovative company in the payments space. With his vast experience as a Technical Architect, Vishal played a crucial role in developing the AurusPay switch. Since AurusPay’s launch, Vishal has been a player coach in defining the features and functionality of the platform.
Vishal has also been closely involved in managing and mentoring a high-caliber team of engineers who provide software development, operations and security of the AurusPay product line. He has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to attract and retain his teams. Under his leadership, the platform has achieved 99.999% uptime while continuing to rapidly scale up to cover increased global geographies and store locations.
With his technical abilities and capabilities to handle multiple projects at a time, the AurusPay platform is capable to grow faster. This is achieved through broad knowledge and experience of numerous technologies and concepts coupled with an ability to understand and describe complex situations in simple terms.
Vishal received a Bachelor’s of Science and a Masters in Computer Science degree from Pune University.
Neha Taneja brings over 18 years of strategic leadership and deep expertise across enterprise account management, product management, and retail payment and checkout solutions. In her role at Aurus, she manages key enterprise client relationships and serves as a trusted advisor, working closely with product, technology, engineering, and operations teams to ensure long-term success. Her background spans full lifecycle payment platform implementations, configuration management, and collaboration across high-volume, large-scale retail environments.
Neha has a proven track record of leading complex, multi-stakeholder programs, resolving cross-functional dependencies, and aligning technical execution with business objectives. She is recognized for her ability to translate intricate system behaviors into clear business insights—empowering clients to modernize their checkout strategies, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experience while meeting evolving security, compliance, and industry standards.
Neha’s prior career includes significant experience in information technology and software delivery, with extensive work in end-to-end project lifecycle management. This strong technical and managerial foundation enables her to bridge the gap between complex backend systems and client-facing business needs, ensuring that Aurus’ payment solutions are robust, scalable, and future-ready.
Neha holds a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) degree in Information Technology.
Prathamesh Desai serves as Vice President of Client Relations at Aurus, bringing more than 15 years of strategic leadership in enterprise account management across the Apparel, Healthcare, and Automotive sectors. In this role, he oversees some of the company’s most significant Tier 1 and mid-market relationships, partnering closely with technology, operations, and vendor ecosystems to drive sustained growth and operational excellence.
Throughout his tenure, Prathamesh has been instrumental in advancing Aurus’ end-to-end payment and checkout solutions. He ensures that Aurus’ products remain aligned with evolving industry expectations, emerging technologies, and the operational realities of large-scale retail environments. His disciplined approach to execution, combined with strong cross-functional leadership, has strengthened long-standing client partnerships and supported several mission-critical transformation initiatives.
Prathamesh’s expertise spans enterprise solution delivery, large-scale deployments, operational readiness, and post-implementation optimization. He is widely recognized for his ability to integrate people, processes, and technology to reduce risk, accelerate project timelines, and deliver meaningful, measurable value to clients.
With more than a decade of experience in IT and payments, Prathamesh remains committed to anticipating client needs and enabling their long-term strategic success through thoughtful guidance, innovation, and a strong client-first philosophy.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Karnataka University.
Nigel has been in the payments industry for over 25 years, holding senior roles in American Express, Visa and Mastercard.
Leading teams working with banks, issuers and acquirers, he has successfully delivered new products into markets including co brands for airlines and hotel verticals. Markets have included Gulf states, South Africa and Europe.
Nigel was the first employee for Citcon the Chinese acquirer in Europe, signing tier one merchants to accept Alipay, We Chat and Union Pay International.
A former head of payments for the UK airline Flybe, he was instrumental in optimising scheme and acquirer contracts to reduce processing fees and has spoken at many payment conferences globally.
Now spearheading business in the United Kingdom and Europe, he is ensuring that Aurusinc increases its brand and content into these new markets.
Nigel holds an MBA from Ashridge Management College.
Pankaj Patil is Head of India Operations and Client Experience for International Operations and a member of Aurus’s Executive Management Committee.
In this role, he leads Aurus’s India Operations, with objective of business development in APAC region. He is responsible for the company’s digital strategy, product go-to-market, delivering seamless, secure and differentiated solutions for the digital consumer and merchant, managing the platforms powering these solutions, forging partnerships with technology players, fintechs and digital partners, and future proofing the payments ecosystem. He also oversees Aurus’s ongoing expansion efforts into emerging markets, specifically designed to maximize the company’s customer centric focus through an end to end approach to design and delivery.
Pankaj is an agile thinker with 18+ years of expertise in Technology as well as Strategic Relationship Management, Road Mapping and Project Execution, Product Development and Innovations in payments for Asia Pacific region. With his multi-functional experience and understanding of payment systems, he has built business on payment platforms in India. He has rich experience working on Digital Payment Solutions, Core Banking Solutions, Issuing and Acquiring platforms including networks like NPCI, Visa and MasterCard. In his various leadership roles he was taking care of revenue and P&L responsibilities.
Pankaj aims at bringing new market strategy using the right combination of latest technologies and in demand digital solutions across the globe. Pankaj’s long tenure in the technology field, combined with his track record of effective leadership, allows him to provide guidance and direction for new exploratory projects. His vision and intimate knowledge of industry has led him to many successful projects. With his leadership skills to collaborate with partners and customers, delivery team brings contented results as a unit.
Prior to joining Auras, he was associated with AGS Transact Technologies Ltd as AVP - Projects, Technology and Switching Services and has also served as consultant with Oracle, NTT DATA and HDFC.
Pankaj holds a Post Graduate Diploma in advance computing from C-DAC, Pune and a B.Tech Engineering from Dr. BATU, Lonere.
Kunal Oswal serves as Vice President of Payments and Compliance, bringing deep expertise in processor certification, card-network compliance, and enterprise payment enablement. He is responsible for overseeing end-to-end certification and compliance initiatives across multiple processors and card brands, ensuring secure, reliable, and standards-compliant payment operations.
With extensive experience navigating complex and highly regulated payment ecosystems, Kunal partners closely with product, engineering, risk, legal, and operations teams to align technical implementations with card-brand mandates and regulatory requirements. His leadership supports scalable integrations, timely certifications, and consistent adherence to evolving network rules.
Kunal holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Pune University, providing a strong technical foundation that underpins his approach to compliance governance and payment system architecture. He is recognized for balancing compliance rigor with business agility, helping organizations accelerate market readiness while maintaining the highest standards of security and operational excellence.
Hena started her career with Aurus in 2013 and since then she has contributed immensely to support the growth at Aurus. Her niche include HR strategy planning with alignment to the organization goals and objectives.
Hena brings with her skills implementing employee oriented company culture that prioritizes employee efforts , and ensures employee satisfaction culminating to quality results. Her HR expertise comprehend talent management, performance management, HR policies, procedures and compliances , compensation and benefits, rewards and recognition, employee connect.
Hena along with her team has played an instrumental role in augmenting the Aurus headcount. She has played a prominent role in developing extensive resourcing techniques to map the talent required to support the company’s rapid growth and minimize attrition. One of these programs include campus recruitment program that has been highly successful as a way to source niche talent at the entry-level hiring of engineers.
Hena has received a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Education and Master of Business Administration in Human Resource Management from Pune University.
Hena is a gold medalist in Master of Business Administration.
For over 11 years, Rishi has been a noteworthy leader in Aurus, in the client relationships focusing on the Grocery, Super Market and Retail space. As the Vice President at Aurus, Rishi works with the technical team and the vendors to maintain and benefit enterprise, Tier1 & Tier2 relationships with the Grocery Chains, Super Market clients and partner channels.
Rishi is passionate about forging lasting client relationships, understanding their unique needs, and delivering tailored solutions that drive success. His journey in the IT industry began 11 years ago, and since then, he is on a mission to provide top-tier account management services that help businesses thrive in the digital age.
With over a decade of dedicated service in the dynamic world of Information Technology, he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table as your trusted Account Manager and Vice President.
Rishi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Rajiv Gandhi University.
Bobby has been an outstanding leader at Aurus for over 12 years, specializing in client relationships within the Auto-parts, Fuel, Convenience Store, Airlines, and Rental sectors. In his role as Vice President, Bobby collaborates closely with the technical team and vendors to enhance and maintain relationships with Tier 1 and mid-market clients, as well as Chains and partner channels.
Bobby is recognized for his significant contributions in managing and delivering comprehensive payment and checkout solutions to Tier 1 and mid-market clients. His adept coordination skills have played a pivotal role in Aurus' successful relationships with clients, ensuring that products align with the evolving demands of the payments industry.
With extensive experience in account management, product deployment, and operations, Bobby is a dedicated leader who consistently delivers value-added services, minimizes risks, and ensures on-time project progress. He is renowned for his innovative approach to integrating people and processes, resulting in consistently successful outcomes.
Bobby holds a Computer Science Engineering degree from Mumbai University, underlining his strong educational foundation in the field.
Siva is the Director of Data Centre and Infrastructure Operations at Aurus, a company that provides innovative payment solutions. At Aurus, Siva’s primary focus is on designing, managing, and scheduling data center activities. He is an expert in data center patching and customizations and has been instrumental in implementing these for Fortune 500 clients based in the US, UK, and other countries.
In addition to his technical expertise, Siva is also a skilled leader with excellent communication and problem-solving skills. He has demonstrated his leadership abilities by overseeing teams of data center professionals and ensuring that all projects are completed on time and within budget. Siva’s ability to motivate his team members and foster a collaborative work environment has been instrumental in the success of many projects.
Siva holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and has professional certifications in Linux and Security domains.
Sarang is accountable for the Aurus Product’s life cycle and maximizing the value of the product with the help of his team. Sarang prioritizes product backlog to streamline the execution of program priorities while maintaining the conceptual and technical integrity of the features or components for the team and ensuring that the product backlog is transparent, visible and understood.
After studying Masters, Computer Science at Pune University, Sarang joined Aurus in 2006. Sarang has expertise in VeriFone (7 years) and (8 years) Ingenico payment terminal application design, analysis, development and maintenance.
Sarang is accountable for the Aurus Product’s life cycle and maximizing the value of the product with the help of his team. Sarang prioritizes product backlog to streamline the execution of program priorities while maintaining the conceptual and technical integrity of the features or components for the team and ensuring that the product backlog is transparent, visible and understood.
For over 12 years, Anil has been a noteworthy leader in Aurus, in the client relationships focusing on the restaurant, QSR and hospitality space. As the Senior Vice President at Aurus, Anil works with the technical team and the vendors to maintain and benefit enterprise, mid-market & SMB client relationships with the QSR Chains, Fine Dine clients and partner channels.
Anil is credited with contributions to manage and deliver Mobile payment solutions across enterprise, mid-market & SMB clients, seamless coordination and overall success of Aurus’ relationship with the clients, ensuring the delivery of the product on the evolving requirements of the payments industry.
Anil has many years of experience in the role of account management for various clients in Product deployment and application development. He is a passionate leader, delivering value-added services, mitigating risks and ensuring timely project progress. He is known for innovatively blending people and processes, to get the jobs done right the first time. Every time.
Anil holds Masters in Business Administration from Symbiosis International University (SIU) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics Engineering – University of Pune (India).
Sumeet has led an impressive career as a Product Delivery Head and software testing in his 16+ years working in the IT industry. Serving as the Vice President at Aurus. Sumeet plays a major role in managing multiple large-scale distributed systems, large teams of direct reports and cross-functional teams. Through his commitment to this role, he has built the AurusPay Life Cycle framework with the standardization of templates across the board.
Sumeet has completed numerous IT projects from project initiation through implementation and project operations in Card Payments, Credit Union & Insurance domains. At Aurus, Sumeet managed Product delivery for various Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 clients along with IT services engagements for application development, IT infrastructure and Analytics.
He has a Bachelor in Computer Engineering degree from Pune University and also certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification from Scrum Alliance.
Combine technical, Operational, and leadership skills, and you have Shweta. Serving as a VP at Aurus, Shweta takes on challenging responsibilities, such as leading and directing the QA team, defining QA strategy, approach and execution in the projects.
She is a true Aurusian developer, experienced professional, and skillful tester. Her impressive soft skills like proactiveness, Strong Minded, quick thinking with assertiveness allows her to focus on continuous QA improvements including usage of appropriate testing tools, test techniques, test automation. With these she is also responsible for ensuring all development tasks, meeting quality criteria through test planning, test execution, quality assurance and issue tracking.
In addition to 14 years with Aurus, Shweta recognizes good talent and brings the best out of each individual of her team. It’s her secret talent!
Shweta holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering from Kolhapur University, India.
Mangesh is the Senior Practice Head, Certification of Aurus and is responsible for Payment Certifications with different Processors across the globe to process the transactions in various countries. Under his leadership, Aurus has completed 100+ Certifications that covers global geographies and store locations. With his technical abilities and capabilities of handling multiple certifications at a time, the AurusPay platform is capable to complete more than 50 different Certifications per year. Mangesh coordinates with multiple processor individuals to keep AurusPay Product updated with the greatest issuer mandates from a compliance, feature and security perspective. Mangesh is responsible to build relationships with different Processors from a product enhancement perspective.
Since joining in 2009 as Product Developer, Mangesh has grown professionally, with his skillset & performance, to lead the role of Certification Department, the team which grew from 10 to 35, with people with different roles and responsibilities. Over his tenure at the company, since AurusPay’s launch, Mangesh has been a player-coach in progressing the feature and functionality of the platform.
Mangesh graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Computers) from Pune University. He holds certification in Oracle Certified Professional Java
Kapil is a seasoned payments professional with over 15 years of experience across the Indian and US payments ecosystems. He has progressed with Aurus from joining as a fresher to becoming a key contributor to the AurusPay platform, demonstrating consistent growth across technical, product, and client-facing roles.
He has led and contributed to critical initiatives including core payment switch development, team leadership, and the establishment of scalable Business Analyst and client-facing frameworks that bridge technology, regulatory compliance, and business requirements. Kapil has played an instrumental role in building structured documentation portals and integration artefacts that support enterprise clients, banks, and regulatory reviews.
Kapil brings deep expertise in India’s payments landscape, covering UPI, cards (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay), wallets, net banking, and in-store payments, along with prior hands-on experience in the US payments market, working with multiple payment processors, card networks, and fraud prevention providers. His experience spans the end-to-end payment lifecycle, including transaction processing, routing, settlement, reconciliation, dispute management, and risk controls.
Recognized for his ability to simplify complex payment and regulatory concepts, Kapil serves as a trusted interface between engineering teams, banks, partners, regulators, and enterprise merchants. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Applications and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.
Vishal Lunawat is an integral part of Aurus with over 15 years of experience, where he has played a key role in shaping the organization’s ecosystem. His journey at Aurus is marked by continuous growth, innovation, and a strong commitment to building scalable, enterprise-grade solutions.
Vishal began his career at Aurus as a software developer, working on foundational projects built from the ground up. These early experiences laid the foundation for his passion for architecture design, platform scalability, and successful production deployments. Over the years, he has been instrumental in the evolution of reporting platform that enables merchants with unified reporting, configuration, and operational capabilities.
What distinguishes Vishal’s career is his cross-domain exposure across development, architecture, product strategy, cloud infrastructure, and large-scale enterprise operations. This holistic perspective enables him to bridge technical execution with business outcomes, driving impactful initiatives across teams and products.
He has extensive experience in leading and scaling engineering teams, managing agile deliveries, deployments, and complex rollouts, designing and building reporting and analytics modules, and working across multiple industry domains, including payments, healthcare, and wellness. He also brings deep expertise in implementing robust tools, frameworks, and operational processes for cloud platforms.
Vishal holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Pune University.