Meesho announces organisational changes as CXO set to depart

Vidit Aatrey, co-founder and CEO (L) and Sanjeev Barnwal co-founder and CTO (R), Meesho

Utkrishta Kumar, the chief experience officer or CXO, business, at online shopping platform Meesho will be leaving his role after over five years at the firm, people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol. Kumar, who reports to co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey, is leaving the SoftBank-backed company to set up his own fintech venture, the people added.

At Meesho, Kumar was tasked with growing the company’s revenue and adding new categories. During his tenure Meesho expanded operations and began selling pet supplies, stationery, musical instruments, books and several other new categories, according to Kumar’s LinkedIn profile, which adds that he was instrumental in Meesho’s orders rising 13-fold since July 2021.

In FY19, when Kumar joined Meesho from Paytm Mall, the former had revenues of just Rs 85 crore which grew to Rs 3,360 crore in FY22, as per Tracxn, a private markets data provider.  The growth in revenues was also because Meesho raised over a $1 billion during that period. The focus on growth, and not on profitability, resulted in Meesho's losses widening from Rs 100 crore in FY19 to Rs 3,250 crore in FY22. The company is yet to file its FY23 results.

Once Kumar leaves Meesho around December/January, Megha Agarwal, currently CXO, growth, will be the new CXO, business, CEO Aatrey said in an email to employees, a copy of which Moneycontrol has seen.

According to the email, Agarwal’s earlier role as CXO, growth, will be split into three categories—user growth, product quality and net merchandise value (NMV) retention—and be allocated to executives internally.

Nilesh Gupta, senior director, growth, will also take on additional duties as general manager, user growth. Similarly, Sourabh Pandey, CXO, fulfilment and experience, will also be responsible for lead NMV retention. The product quality division will, however, remain with Agarwal.

All three—Gupta, Pandey and Agarwal—will continue to report to Aatrey.

A spokesperson for Meesho confirmed the organisational changes to Moneycontrol.

“We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Utkrishta Kumar who has decided to move on to pursue his entrepreneurship dream after a successful five-year stint with Meesho… We welcome Megha Agarwal as CXO, business, and Nilesh Gupta as general manager, user growth. With a strong leadership team, we will continue our mission of democratising internet commerce for everyone,” a company spokesperson said.

The organisational changes at Meesho come at a time when the Bengaluru-based company has chosen to prioritise profitability over growth. In August, Meesho said it turned profitable on a profit after tax (PAT) basis for July, helped by lower customer acquisition costs and better monetisation efforts. Despite the improvement, Meesho is unlikely to end FY24 in the black, largely because the monthly PAT numbers will not add up to a large amount given the company’s scale.

Second time lucky

This is not the first time Kumar has decided to venture out on his own. Between 2011 and 2012, Kumar founded Mojocircles, an e-commerce startup that dealt with handicrafts and connected artisans across India, per his LinkedIn profile.

While people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol that Kumar will be starting up in the fintech space, more details were not immediately available.

“I'm going to root for his success and I'm very sure he will create a 100x impact in whatever he chooses to do next. Thank you for all your efforts, UK (Utkrishta Kumar),” Aatrey wrote in his email.