--- title: "Sumant Karbandaa - Director - Partnerships and Growth in Bengaluru | Tal" description: "Meet Sumant Karbandaa, Partnerships & Growth Leader | Revenue, Distribution, Monetisation, GTM based in Bengaluru. AI stack includes claude, gemini, and openai." image: "https://tal.club/meet/sumant-kharbanda/share-image" --- # Sumant Karbandaa on Tal ## Headline Partnerships & Growth Leader \| Revenue, Distribution, Monetisation, GTM ## About 🚀 Business leader with 10 years of experience building and scaling growth engines across fintech and consumer tech with one consistent outcome: Partnerships that generate revenue at scale\. I have built, launched, and monetised strategic alliance programs across India's most recognised consumer platforms — Zomato, Times Internet, Tata Neu, and Fi Money — operating at the intersection of business development, product\-led distribution, and P&L ownership\. My track record spans the full partnership lifecycle: identifying white\-space revenue opportunities, structuring complex multi\-stakeholder deals, shipping partnership\-integrated products from zero to one, and scaling them into durable revenue engines\. What I bring: 📈 Revenue\-Generating Alliances: Architected partnership frameworks across fintech, foodtech, and subscription\-based products that unlocked new distribution channels, drove enterprise sales, generated incremental platform spend, and created rewards and monetisation engines\. 🎯 Drive growth with strong fundamentals: Acquisition, GMV/spends, CAC, not just top\-line growth, but sustainable economics 🧠 Operate like an owner: P&L ownership and comfortable navigating ambiguity to drive decisions Impact snapshot: 💳 Scaled lending businesses to ₹XXCr\+ monthly run\-rate via forging lending partnerships with Banks & NBFCs at Fi Money\. 📊 Built acquisition engines contributing up to \~50% of total volumes at Fi Money \(lending and credit cards\) 💰 P&L Ownership at Scale: Owned the end\-to\-end rewards and monetisation P&L for Fi's loyalty program — driving revenue growth of ₹XX Cr\+ ARR through brand partnerships 🌐 Drove \~40% of subscription growth through ecosystem\-led distribution and Enterprise partnerships \(Zomato and Times Prime\) 💳 Payment alliances to drive spends on Zomato Skills: \- Distribution/Acquisition/Channel partnerships \- Enterprise Partnerships \- Loyalty and Rewards \- Brand and merchant alliances → I am available at kharbandasumant@gmail\.com ## Location Bengaluru ## AI stack claude gemini openai perplexity claudecode Wispr Flow ## Work experience Director \- Partnerships and Growth at Fi, Apr 2023 \- Present · 3 yrs 4 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, \#\#\# Owned strategic partnerships across Debit & Credit Cards, Rewards, Personal Loans, UPI, driving revenue, distribution & adoption, and platform growth through demand\-side growth \(distribution/partner channels, merchant alliances, and brand monetisation\) and supply\-side partnerships \(banks, fintechs, NBFCs, TSPs\) <<Demand Partnerships>> 1\. Rewards and Loyalty: Led the Rewards P&L, driving XX Cr revenue and YY% uplift in redemption velocity\. • Rebuilt the Rewards charter by launching “Pay with Points” with Razorpay and expanding into high\-engagement categories like gift cards, travel miles \(Singapore airlines, AirIndia, Club ITC\), and merchandise\. • Delivered on revenue targets with positive unit economics while scaling user adoption & engagement 2\. Brand Partnerships: • Built the merchant alliances strategy across dining, travel, lifestyle categories to drive debit & credit card usage & spends with co\-funded commercial constructs • Built the partnerships & integrations ecosystem powering value prop of cobranded credit cards across travel & lifestyle benefits through scalable & cost\-efficient commercial constructs supporting the credit card portfilio 3\. User Acq/Distribution Partnerships: • Built partnerships across travel tech & commerce ecosystems, unlocking \~25% of DC and 30% of CC sourcing through contextual, high\-intent acq journeys • Scaled the lending channels into a core acq engine, contributing \~50% of total disbursals through structured sourcing, CAC governance & lead quality controls 4\. Ecosytsem Partnerships: Drove user reactivation campaigns through checkout integrations with Razorpay & GoKwik, recovering \~X% of dormant cards and UPI users within target CAC <<Supply Partnerships>> • Expanded the lender ecosystem by identifying & onboarding X no of NBFC partners, helping strengthen credit supply & reduce concentration risk for a ₹XX Cr\+ lending portfolio • Led issuer/bank partnerships for credit card aligning commercials, CVP, & GTM execution Associate Director \- Partnerships and Digital Acquisitions at Tata Digital, Dec 2021 \- Feb 2023 · 1 yr 3 mos, Delhi, India, \#\#\# Launched and scaled the Tata Neu co\-branded credit card in partnership with HDFC Bank, Visa, and RuPay through strategic brand and ecosystem partnerships 1\. CVP & Merchant Partnerships: Led brand partnerships across Tata ecosystem, co\-creating the CVP through brand\-integrated rewards and contextual acquisition journeys to scale high\-intent card issuance\. 2\. Strategic Bank Partnerships: Program\-managed the HDFC Bank partnership across product, tech, and marketing workstreams, driving 2L\+ issuance with 90% activation rate and improving funnel efficiency\. 3\. Channel & Distribution Partnerships: Designed and scaled a structured credit card issuance program across Tata ecosystem, contributing \~30% of sourced volumes through high\-intent phygital channels\. 4\. Issuer & Network Partnerships: Led pitch development/issuer expansion, and commercial structuring with SBI Cards and Kotak Bank to unlock growth via new bank partners\. Managed relationships with Rupay and VISA aligning network incentives etc\. \*\* Recognized with Tata Digital’s “Fireball” award for driving the Tata NeuCard value proposition and accelerating program rollout across the Tata ecosystem Head of B2B Business at Times Prime, Apr 2020 \- Nov 2021 · 1 yr 8 mos, Gurugram, Haryana, India, \#\#\# On the launch team for Times Prime Gold, scaling the flagship lifestyle subscription through enterprise partnerships\. 1\. B2B Business: Transformed Times Prime into a scalable distribution\-led business by building enterprise partnerships across B2B, B2B2C, and B2C channels, leading to ₹XX Cr ARR through bulk and platform\-led deals\. 2\. Brand alliances: Expanded Times Prime’s value proposition by partnering with leading brands including Google, Amazon, Uber, Cult to offer exclusive, member\-only benefits, strengthening subscription appeal and driving acquisition and engagement\. \*\*Awarded ASPIRE status, highest recognition, for exemplary performance \- consecutive revenue growth and target achievement over 2 quarters\* Partnerships Lead \- Zomato Gold at Zomato, Apr 2018 \- Mar 2019 · 1 yr, On\-site, \#\#\# On the launch team for Zomato Gold, scaling the flagship dining membership across India and the UAE through on\-platform and off\-platform strategic partnerships and alliances\. • Owned the subscriber growth and revenue charter, driving \~30% of total monthly users and over Rs\.XX Cr in annual revenue through strategic partnerships and consumer promotions\. • Built and scaled revenue partnerships from scratch across key verticals: product and distribution \(Telcos, OEMs, E\-commerce\), payment ecosystem \(banks and wallets\), loyalty, affiliate, and brand sponsorships\. • Developed category\-specific playbooks across Consumer Tech, Telcos, Cab\-hailing, OTTs, OTAs, Airlines, E\-commerce, BFSI, D2C, and Entertainment\. • Led 20\+ brand partnerships including Amex, Flipkart, Myntra, MakeMyTrip, PhonePe, Amazon, WeWork, Coca\-Cola, Cure\.fit, OnePlus, Netflix, and all leading banks\. Growth and Partnerships at Zomato, Apr 2017 \- Mar 2018 · 1 yr, Gurgaon, India, \#\#\# Part of the Zomato growth team, contributing to the scale\-up of the online ordering business from \~4Mn to \~20Mn monthly orders 1\) Growth \- Online Ordering \- Owned growth for Zomato’s online ordering subscription product \(Zomato Treats\) driving acquisition, and engagement\. \- Led end\-to\-end growth marketing across owned channels \(CRM: email, SMS, push\) to drive user acquisition and subscriptions\. \- Designed and executed growth experiments \(free trials, A/B testing\) to improve order frequency\. \- Built cohort\-based and personalized campaigns to increase stickiness and drive higher order frequency among subscribers\. 2\) Strategic Partnerships \- Built payment alliances from scracth with leading banks and wallets, driving incremental transactions and new user acquisition through offer\-led constructs\. \- Closed and scaled marquee partnerships across affiliates, e\-comm and OEMs to drive new users within defined cost guardrails\. Assistant Marketing Manager at Oxigen, Mar 2015 \- Nov 2016 · 1 yr 9 mos, Gurgaon, India, • Led end\-to\-end planning and execution of targeted, integrated marketing campaigns across owned channels, including concept development, promotional strategy, and execution governance\. • Drove monthly and quarterly marketing planning by building campaign calendars aligned to engagement goals, and collaborating cross\-functionally to ensure effective rollout\. • Designed and executed merchant offers to increase transacting users, leveraging targeted promotions and offers\. • Driving event\-based opportunities to engage customers, build Brand Associations & drive revenue by leveraging properties like IPL \(Oxigen Gujarat Lions\), Cricket South Africa \(\#PlayTheHost\), Campaign with Brand Endorser, Sachin Tendulkar\(\#BinBatauaFriday\)\. • Managed on\-ground activations, events and sponsorships [View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/sumant-kharbanda) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://tal.club/meet/sumant-kharbanda#person", "name": "Sumant Karbandaa", "url": "https://tal.club/meet/sumant-kharbanda", "image": "https://tal.club/meet/sumant-kharbanda/profile-photo.jpg", "description": "Meet Sumant Karbandaa, Partnerships & Growth Leader | Revenue, Distribution, Monetisation, GTM based in Bengaluru. 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