After a major restructuring at India’s leading eCommerce startup Flipkart, the company’s head of commerce division and Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal has decided to quit the company. Along with him, Ankit Nagori, Chief Business Officer has also decided to leave, reports ET.
Mukesh Bansal, who is currently the head of Flipkart’s commerce platform will leave by April, while Chief Business Officer Ankit Nagori will exit by May 2016. Both are leaving company to start their own respective ventures.
Last month, Flipkart underwent a major executive reshuffle which resulted in Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart becoming the Chief Executive Officer and Sachin Bansal being appointed as Executive Chairman in strategic and mentoring role.
Ankit Nagori has been working in the company since January 2015 as Chief Business Officer. However, he joined the company in 2010 and has worked at various Vice President and Senior Vice President roles.
He has invested in various startups and has been appointed in advisory roles in many early stage startups in various categories, including Mobile Ads, Logistics, Re-Commerce, Food & Beverage, Transportation.
According to a report, Ankit plans to start a sports talent development company, which is a field he is passionate about. The firm is likely to be backed by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.
Mukesh Bansal joined Flipkart after his company – Myntra, a leading online retailer of lifestyle and fashion products, was acquired by Flipkart around two years ago for $375 million. Since then, he has been working very closely with Sachin and Binny on all aspects including strategy and organization.
After the restructuring, Mukesh was supposed to continue in his roles as Chairman of Myntra and Head of the commerce division.He was also given the responsibility of Flipkart’s ads business.
In an interview, Mukesh Bansal said,
We’ve been discussing (my departure) for a while, since October. I wanted to give Binny some time to come in and settle as new CEO. We also restructured the commerce platform into product groups. So I wanted to give some time to Binny to understand the commerce platform and build relationships with the leaders there. We have some great leaders coming in and this was the right time to leave. I really did want to take a break. The past two years or so, I’ve been like a co-founder here.
He further added that he got financially and emotionally vested in the success of the group and for him, it was about setting up the company for long-term success.
Binny Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Flipkart, said,
Mukesh will continue to be an adviser to Flipkart and Myntra, besides me and Sachin (Bansal) personally. He has been one of the best leaders that I have had the privilege to work with.
Resignation of two of Flipkart’s best executives comes at times when there have been huge questions put up on profitability of such ballooned up ecommerce ventures. Flipkart for example, as of now, has already raised close to $3 Billion of investor money, with another $1 billion+ round in works to keep the company going.
The company is currently valued at over $15 billion — a figure repeatedly brought into question. It has also reportedly approached Alibaba for funding to ensure company’s smooth operations until a possible IPO.
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