Mukesh Bansal steps down from the helm at Tata Neu: Report

Tata Digital President Mukesh Bansal has stepped down from the helm at the Mumbai-based conglomerate's latest subsidiary Tata Neu, multiple people aware of the matter told the Economic Times.

During this time, the company is undergoing ongoing changes at the top. In June 2021, Bansal, cofounder of fashion e-tailer Myntra, joined Tata Digital.
However, he is no longer part of Neu's core businesses, people with knowledge of the situation said but is likely to continue to provide advisory services, according to ET.

According to another person familiar with the situation, Bansal has been to some Tata Neu board meetings over the last few months, the report added. The Tata Digital spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify this news development.

Bansal said ET's questions were "factually incorrect". He did not comment specifically on his current role.

According to former employees, Pratik Pal oversees all business decisions at Tata Digital.

Tata Digital wants to balance unit economics and growth simultaneously, according to a person directly involved. "The difference in approach on how to scale a new internet business played a role in these internal changes," this person told ET.

In addition to raising capital for Tata Digital's e-commerce business, Bansal was expected to play a key role in raising new capital. However, Tata Sons are largely funding the venture, even though it has begun talks with marquee investors.

In 2016, Bansal co-founded Cultfit with former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori. The company was originally called Curefit, a minority-owned company owned by Tatas.

Cultfit is still largely run by former Myntra executive Naresh Krishnaswamy. Bansal is also exploring the option of setting up a new venture, sources who have met him over the past several weeks and who are aware of his thinking told ET.

It is nonetheless early in the development of these plans, they said. In December, ET reported that Prateek Mehta and Sharath Bulusu, two senior executives at Tata Digital, had also quit. The Flipkart group, Udaan, Blinkit and others were among the executives hired by Bansal, including Mehta and Bulusu.

Tata Neu Updates

Nine months after Neu's public launch, growth has been relatively slow. As compared to existing and established platforms like e-grocer BigBasket, the super app contributes about 10 percent of total gross sales. Tatas also acquired E-pharmacy 1mg for Neu, the report added.

Since the app's launch, the company has included its own properties, such as Tata Cliq, Croma, and AirAsia.

The group recently added the jewellery brand Tanishq and watch brand Titan on the platform.

"It will take some time before there is any visible impact on market shares. They were also cognizant of the problems they were facing with the super app and it took some time to fix those," one of the people mentioned earlier said.

Sources close to Tata Digital, however, indicated the group was happy about the growth rate of the Neu app, which has around 40-50 million Neu pass users now.

Neu pass is a loyalty programme on Neu where users have credited Neu Coins and other benefits for transacting on the super app.

At the time of launch, Tata Sons executive chairman N Chandrasekaran had said Neu would also see external brands – that are not part of Tata group – joining the super app. Those plans have yet to take effect, though.

Chandrasekaran joined Tata Digital's board formally last April, ET reported.

Brands and sellers told ET that Tata Neu has not been able to make a significant contribution to overall sales yet, compared to bigger rivals like Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon India.

ET had reported last year that Tata Digital had brought all eCommerce businesses under Tata Digital and infused more funds in BigBasket as well at 1mg.