Sunil Kulkarni

Experience & Activities

Sunil is currently the CEO (Designate) – SRO* and Head, Business Correspondents Federation of India (BCFI). He is also Fintech Advisory toa Small Finance Bank, select initial & growth stage start-ups, a mid-sized NBFC of a large industrial house, aFinancial Services Equity Fund in UAE and a global consumer technology company.
Sunil has over 34 years of cross-industry experience in technology-led businesses. In his last executive assignment (Dec 2019), he was the Joint Managing Director for Oxigen Services, a company he helped build over 15 years and had investments from Citibank Venture Capital, Microsoft Corporation and Blue Label Telecom South Africa.He took charge of Oxigen Services (then known as India Prepaid Services Pvt Ltd) as CEO in 2004. He and the Chairman, jointly decided to launch in India’s first e-Distribution Network for mobile recharge coupons and its dispensation over Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, PC and SMS. Sunil is also referred to as the techno-savvy brain behind developing a successful business model, using Technology, for varied services & products, including Oxigen’s Mobile Wallet, an innovative payment mechanism and prepaid wallet, accessible online/on-mobile way back in 2008 when there were no smart phones.

He successfully led the company’s business and was also the architect for the technology solution development. He alongside the Oxigen core team converted Oxigen from a Recharges/BillPay retail aggregation company, to an integrated Branchless Banking & Payment Solutions company. Hewas also responsible for taking the company to its next greenfield opportunity in Domestic & International Remittances, Merchant Payments, Aadhaar enabled payments and Loyalty, propelling Oxigen into its next growth phase.Before taking the role of CEO-BCFI, he wasthe founding member & Director on board of the BC Federation of India and also co-chaired Prepaid Payments Instruments (PPI) committee in Payments Council of India (PCI)and through his interactions with government and regulator during and post demonetisation, he contributed to creating an enabling environment for the Digital Payments/Wallet industry.
Prior to joining Oxigen, Sunil served as General Manager-Marketing & Business Development in Motorola India’s Wireless Infrastructure business for 9 years, starting in 1995. He looked after Business Development, Business Strategy and Product Management functions for GSM & CDMA wireless technologies. He started his professional journey in 1986 with Siemens Ltd., where he last served as the Head of Semi-Conductor Division.
Sunil is anEngineering Graduatein Electronics & Communication with Gold medal in 1986 from Jodhpur and has done Management Education Program (1992-93) from Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), Ahmedabad, India.