Co-founder Avnish Anand elevated as CEO of CaratLane with immediate effect

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Avnish Anand, the co-founder of CaratLane has been appointed as the startup’s new chief executive officer (CEO) with immediate effect. The decision comes just days after his co-founder and former boss, Mithun Sacheti, made a remarkable exit by selling his CaratLane shares to Titan.

Last week, Titan, which already holds 71.09 percent in CaratLane, said it would further increase its stake to 98.28 percent by buying out Sacheti’s 27.18 percent share in the online jewellery retailer for Rs 4,621 crore. The deal valued CaratLane at Rs 17,000 crore. It also marked the second biggest e-commerce exit in India, just after Walmart’s $16 billion deal for Flipkart which gave both founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, over $1 billion each.

About a week after Sacheti’s exit, Anand has now been promoted from his previous role as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of CaratLane.

“Avnish (Anand)... was employee No.1 at CaratLane and an integral part of the founding team. He has played a stellar role in building CaratLane into what it is today,” the company said in a statement.

Anand has been with the company for over eight years. The press statement also said that co-founder Gurukeerthi Gurunathan will continue to play an important role as the Chief Technology Officer of CaratLane.

While Sacheti made Rs 4,621 crore from his exit, he also made sure top-level employees at the company get rewarded handsomely in ESOP payouts. About 75 CaratLane employees are set to receive about Rs 340-30 crore, Moneycontrol had reported earlier.

“Mithun has been a pillar of support and a sounding board for all my ideas these past years, so of course it’s sad to see him go. But I’m really excited for this new chapter as we have a great opportunity to build a bigger and more remarkable business in front of us,” CaratLane’s new CEO Anand said in the statement.