In a significant leadership transition, Rediff.com has announced the appointment of Vishal Mehta as its new Chairman and Managing Director. This move follows the acquisition of a majority stake in Rediff.com by Infibeam Avenues Ltd, paving the way for a new era in the company’s operations.

The decision was made by Rediff.com’s board of directors during a meeting on Tuesday, where Mehta was officially appointed to succeed Ajit Balakrishnan. Balakrishnan, who has led the company since its inception in 1996, played a pivotal role in shaping Rediff.com into a leading online platform in India.

Vishal Mehta, who also serves as the Chairman and Managing Director of Infibeam Avenues, is expected to leverage his extensive experience and insights to guide Rediff.com as it embarks on its new journey. In August, Infibeam Avenues acquired a 54% stake in Rediff.com, indicating its intention to transform the platform into a consumer-facing digital financial services aggregator.

Founded in 1996 by Ajit Balakrishnan, Rediff.com has evolved to offer a diverse range of services, including cloud-based enterprise email storage, content distribution, and various commerce services. The platform has built a substantial user base, ranking among the top 1,000 sites globally in terms of traffic, with over 55 million monthly visitors. This impressive reach provides valuable insights into user behavior, preferences, and spending patterns.

Infibeam’s strong regulatory compliance background, especially through its CCAvenue payment gateway—which has received approvals from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA)—will be essential in executing Rediff.com’s growth strategy.

As Rediff.com prepares to relaunch in its new avatar, the leadership of Vishal Mehta signifies a strategic shift aimed at enhancing its digital footprint and expanding its offerings in the competitive landscape of digital financial services.