Another top exit at Flipkart, COO Nitin Seth quits ahead of Snapdeal merger

Reports that Krishnamurthy would take over HR functions at Flipkart set stage for his departure

Nitin Seth, recently appointed Chief Operating Officer at India’s largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, has put down his papers as investor Tiger Global further tightens the reins around the company.

Seth, who was appointed as Chief People Officer in March last year had quickly risen up the ladder at Flipkart. After Kalyan Krishnamurthy, former Tiger Global executive took over as CEO in January, Seth was offered the position of COO apart from heading Ekart and HR.

The Economic Times newspaper first reported about the developments at Flipkart on Wednesday. Flipkart did not respond to queries.

Last week, it was reported that Krishnamurthy would take take over HR functions at Flipkart, setting the stage for Seth’s exit. His departure comes at a time when Flipkart is in the process of buying smaller rival Snapdeal, in what should become the largest M&A deal India’s start-up sector has seen so far.

When deals such as these go through, experts say HR becomes a key responsibility, as a company will have to take hard decisions of whom to let go. Apart from the acquisition of Snapdeal, which will create a hoard of redundant positions at the merged entity, Flipkart is also in the process of integrating eBay’s India unit within itself.

Krishnamurthy took over as CEO, inherited an arduous task of reviving a company that was bloated and had lost direction. Exits of top executives such as Punit Soni, Manish Maheshwari, Mukesh Bansal, Ankit Nagori, Amod Malvia, Sanjay Baweja, Peeyush Ranjan and several others have made headlines in the past one year.

The former Tiger Global executives hard handed tactics have however yielded results, with Flipkart fighting back rival Amazon’s rise in India. The Indian firm even raised a massive $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, which it said it will invest massively in technology and infrastructure apart from growing higher yielding categories such as fashion, furniture and appliances.

Seth was one among the key hires of Binny Bansal, co-founder who took over the position of CEO from Sachin Bansal who had led the company for eight years. With both company founders relegated from looking into the day to day running of the company, Krishnamurthy has appointed aides close to him in top positions.