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Rajiv Surendran is the Co-founder & CEO of Nearwala (NearPay Innovations Pvt Ltd), an AI-powered hyperlocal commerce platform built to empower local retailers with digital visibility, loyalty, and growth tools. He has strong experience in building scalable digital platforms, including working with the Government of Kerala during COVID to launch India’s first COVID tracking app used by 2.5M+ people. Rajiv founded Nearwala after witnessing local Kirana stores struggle during lockdowns due to lack of technology, visibility, and customer access. From day one, he has built Nearwala from scratch—leading product vision, user experience, and platform development while also driving business development, merchant onboarding, partnerships, and revenue strategy. He has played a key role in building and scaling teams across sales, operations, and product, and in executing market expansion across multiple cities. Under his leadership, Nearwala has grown to 5,000+ merchants across 10+ cities, 400K+ users, and ₹15 Cr+ cumulative GMV during its pilot phase, with a clear roadmap toward ads, loyalty, delivery, and fintech verticals.