Kartic Grover
SVP IT & CIO @Airtel Africa Digital Labs
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WORK HISTORY
SVP IT & CIO @Airtel Africa Digital Labs
Gurugram, IN
Lead end-to-end Digital Channels and Core Platforms for Telecom and Mobile Money across 14 operating companies in Africa, supporting services used by ~180 million customers. Accountable for digital strategy, mobile money architecture, platform modernization, execution governance, and operational resilience across multi-country regulated environments. Own the full lifecycle of platforms - strategy, roadmap, build, rollout and run - across consumer, enterprise, fintech, telecom core, and internal IT systems.Built and scaled a member global engineering organization spanning Product, Engineering, Architecture, Data & AI, SRE, DevOps, TPM and QA across India and Africa. Transformed the operating model from vendor-heavy delivery to product-centric in-house Agile tribes and Release Trains, enabling predictable monthly releases, stronger ownership and improved cost efficiency. Lead digital architecture and platform strategy across telecom and fintech domains, partnering with Group and OpCo leadership to align technology investments with commercial KPIs, regulatory mandates, and market expansion priorities.Portfolio span : Consumer and Fintech platforms (prepaid, postpaid, broadband, digital TV, wallet, lending, IMT, credit scoring, fraud detection); Enterprise and revenue platforms (sales & distribution digitization for ~300K agents, CRM, omni-channel customer service, B2B gateways); Telecom digital and core platforms (GSM middleware, lifecycle management, onboarding, SIM activation, regulatory KYC, MDM and ticketing); Data & AI platforms driving intelligent automation, predictive analytics and decision engines; and internal enterprise systems digitizing HR, procurement and finance workflows.Delivered 60+ configurable digital platforms since 2019. Accelerated time-to-market through Agile Release Trains, leveraged AI-driven automation to reduce manual workloads and improve service velocity, and strengthened platform reliability across multi-country deployments.
EDUCATION
Department of Computer Science, University of Delhi
MCA, Computer Science
Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University
B.Sc(H), Electronics
SKILLS
ABOUT KARTIC GROVER
I am a global technology executive with over two decades of experience leading enterprise IT, digital platforms, and engineering organizations at scale across telecom, fintech, and consumer technology. Currently serving as SVP & CIO at Airtel Africa Digital Labs, I lead end to end IT, product engineering, data & AI, and platform operations across 14 operating countries, supporting services used by approximately 180 million customers. I am accountable for digital strategy, Digital and Mobile Money platform architecture, platform modernization, and large-scale execution across multi-country regulated environments.My experience spans building and scaling member engineering organizations, launching telecom and fintech stacks (KYC, Sales and Distribution Platform, wallet, lending, AML, international remittance etc), modernizing telecom digital platforms, and implementing AI-driven automation across customer, sales, and operations workflows. I have led operating model transformations from vendor-heavy delivery to product-centric, in-house agile tribes, significantly improving velocity, cost efficiency, and platform ownership.My approach combines strategic clarity with disciplined execution — aligning technology investments tightly with business KPIs, regulatory requirements, and long-term platform scalability.Core areas of leadership include:• Enterprise IT Strategy & Digital Transformation• Telecom & Mobile Money Platforms• Digital Architecture & Platform Engineering• AI, Data & Intelligent Automation• Large-Scale Agile & Operating Model Transformation• Cross-Border Engineering Leadership & GovernanceBeyond telecom and fintech, I bring transferable strengths in digital platform strategy, operational resilience, product-led growth, and technology-driven cost transformation.
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