meesho: Meesho CXO Utkrishta Kumar exits to set up own venture

Utkrishta Kumar, ecommerce firm Meesho’s chief experience officer (CXO) for business, has quit the firm after a five-year stint, cofounder and chief executive Vidit Aatrey said in an internal mail reviewed by ET.

Kumar is leaving to “pursue entrepreneurship”, Aatrey said in his email to staff.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Kumar worked across various functions at Meesho, including category management, operations, marketing and user retention. Before joining Meesho, he was associate vice president, business, at Paytm Mall.

“He (Kumar) has played an extremely important role in making Meesho what it is today and I heartily thank him for his contributions. 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, K (Kumar),” Aatrey said in the email to staff.

Kumar’s role will be taken up by Megha Agarwal, who is currently CXO, growth. Agarwal’s role will be split into three categories: user growth, product quality and net merchandise value (NMV) retention.

While Agarwal will continue being in charge of product quality, user growth will be taken care of by Nilesh Gupta, senior director, growth. Sourabh Pandey, CXO, fulfilment and experience will be responsible for NMV retention.

A Meesho spokesperson confirmed Kumar’s exit “With a strong leadership team, we will continue our mission of democratising internet commerce for everyone,” the firm said in a statement. The changes come after Meesho closed its flagship festive season sale, called ‘Mega Blockbuster Sale’, on Sunday. On Monday, ET reported how the firm, alongside bigger rivals Amazon India and Walmart-owned Flipkart, had experienced robust sales growth during the first week, driven to a large extent by purchases made by customers living beyond metro and tier 1 cities, which is also Meesho’s main target audience.

On October 13, ET reported that Venture Highway, one of the early investors in Meesho, had sold a portion of its stake in the ecommerce startup to India-focused investment fund WestBridge Capital.

Earlier, in a statement on August 7, the company said it had clocked its maiden profit after tax for the month of July. It did not mention the exact profit numbers.

Meesho is said to be on an annualised revenue run-rate of around $750-800 million.

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