Coinbase, which went public in a high-profile debut on the Nasdaq earlier this month, has appointed Pankaj Gupta to head its India operations. “For the next phase of my life after Google, I am thrilled to share that I will be joining Coinbase as VP of Engineering and Site lead for India. I’ll be responsible for leading and building the company’s technology hub in India from scratch. I will be hiring across India,” Gupta shared on Medium.
Last month, Coinbase, which is biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, had announced it is establishing a business presence in India and looking to hire tech talent in the country. “By housing some IT services, including engineering, software development and customer support operations in India, we will benefit from its huge pool of world-class engineering talent. India has long been known as a hub for engineering and technology innovation, and we look forward to finding that world-class talent to help the Coinbase group develop new ways for our customers to interact with the cryptoeconomy, the crypto company said.
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Coinbase also said that it expects to open a physical office, initially in Hyderabad, for Indian employees as COVID-related conditions allow.
Pankaj Gupta, who is a Delhi IIT graduate according to his LinkedIn profile, wrote on Medium: “Coinbase is innovating at the frontier of crypto and blockchains — some of the most exciting trends in the world today. In my conversations with the Coinbase executive leadership, it became clear that this is an ambitious and mission focused company for builders like me.”
“Coinbase plans to tap and develop this local talent. Specifically, the plan is to hire hundreds of employees across all levels in engineering, product management, UX design, research and program management within the next 1–2 years to build out a full tech hub in India. Together, we’ll work on some of the most interesting challenges spanning the full modern tech stack — including deep tech areas like blockchains, data engineering, infrastructure, machine learning and more,” he said.
Gupta also said that Coinbase will also explore startup acquisitions and acquihires to support its growth plans in India.