Peeyush Ranjan, Senior Vice President Engineering and former Chief Technology Officer of Flipkart will leave the company at the end of December. Ranjan has become the latest in the wave of top managers exiting India’s largest online retailer.
Ranjan will join Airbnb in the United States as vice president of engineering based out of San Francisco. He will serve out his notice period till December 31.
Private label head Mausam Bhatt has also reportedly put in his papers.
According to sources, Adarsh Menon, heads Flipkart’s electronics business, will replace Bhatt and the company’s current Chief of Engineering, Ravi Garikipati will take over Ranjan’s role.
Just a month ago, Chief Financial Officer of Flipkart, Sanjay Baweja quit the company, just under two years of joining the e-commerce marketplace.
All the departures have come at a crucial time for sales, which have taken a hit due to demonetization and even as Flipkart engages in talks with US retailer Walmart Stores Inc to raise up to US$1 billion for a minority stake.
The mass exodus has come at a time when Flipkart is grappling with a value markdown from various US-based mutual funds, Morgan Stanley featuring prominently amid them.
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Amazon’s announcement to invest $5 billion in India recently is also aimed at throwing Flipkart off its game. The investment is Amazon’s bid to take over from Flipkart and become India’s largest online marketplace before China’s e-commerce behemoth Alibaba enters the country.
Flipkart has seen a string of exits in recent months.
Head of commerce and advertising business Mukesh Bansal and chief business officer Ankit Nagori resigned from the company in February this year. Nagori quit the firm to start a venture in the sports domain where Flipkart’s co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal are the first investors.
Later in April, Flipkart’s chief product officer Punit Soni and vice-president and head of seller ecosystem Manish Maheshwari resigned from the company to join Web18. In July, Flipkart lost two more senior executives — payment product head Lalit Sarna and product lead for marketplace division Sunil Gopinath.
In August, Flipkart had changed its top management structure again, putting two key business units under the control of Kalyan Krishnamurthy, a senior executive from Tiger Global who was brought back in June this year. This was the third major re-organisation at Flipkart this year.
Krishnamurthy is now leading Flipkart’s turnaround as it fights to keep the numero uno status in India’s e-tail war.
Ranjan will join Airbnb in the United States as vice president of engineering based out of San Francisco. He will serve out his notice period till December 31
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