Top-level exits at Flipkart: Senior executives depart amidst company reshuffling

Flipkart, the e-commerce giant owned by Walmart, is reportedly experiencing a series of top-level departures. Adarsh Menon, who currently serves as the Senior Vice President (SVP) and Head of New Businesses, including Shopsy, Cleartrip, and ReCommerce, is said to be leaving the company, according to sources cited by Moneycontrol.

Menon assumed his current role approximately 10 months ago, having previously served as the SVP and Head of Flipkart Wholesale and Walmart India for nearly a year. Overall, Menon has been associated with Flipkart for over eight years, based on his LinkedIn profile.

In addition to Menon, two other senior executives are also rumored to be departing from Flipkart. Chanakya Gupta, the Vice President (VP) of Strategic Partnerships and D2C Brand Accelerator (Flipkart Boost) is reportedly leaving after almost nine years at the company.

Gupta held the position of VP and Head of Private Brands before his current role, and prior to joining Flipkart, he worked with Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) for approximately nine years.

Similar to Gupta, even Menon was with HUL before joining Flipkart.

Further, Ravish Kumar Sinha, SVP, is also said to be exiting Flipkart. Sinha was the leader of the Fulfillment Service Group and Central Functions Group. He was also responsible to enhance the customer experience and drive growth.

Prior to joining Flipkart, Sinha was with Yahoo for over 13 years, his LinkedIn showed. Interestingly, all three, Sinha, Gupta and Menon are leaving Flipkart after eight years at the firm.

Their next move was not immediately known.

Last month, Utkarsh B, the chief architect at the company also quit Flipkart after over a decade at the company. He had joined from Amazon in December 2010. And in December 2021, Ranjith Boyanapalli had quit Flipkart to start his own venture, Flash.

The departures come just after Flipkart said it will buy back employee stock options (ESOP) worth about $700 million from employees as a part of its move to separate full ownership of payments and financial services unicorn PhonePe, in a move to retain talent.

The full value of the buyback that was estimated to be worth $700 million, as reported earlier.

More recently, Flipkart’s contribution margin is positive and continues to expand, top Walmart executives said in an earnings call on February 21, 2023.

The US retail major, which owns Flipkart, also said that the Indian e-commerce marketplace is benefitting from investments in infrastructure made in the last three years and riding on India’s strong economic prospects.

Moneycontrol reached out to Flipkart for more information but did not receive a response by the time of publishing the story.