Movers and Shakers Of The Week [1 -6 June]

We bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

This week, online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra and CEO Rajesh Magow told employees in a letter that the company has to resort to rightsizing the team as pandemic has changed the context and viability of some of its business lines in its current form.

The company has hence decided to lay off 350 employees as its business has taken a severe hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The internal email told employees that over the past two months, MMT has analysed impact closely and have spent considerable time thinking about the path to business recovery.

“As a result, it’s become agonisingly clear that there are certain lines of business (LoBs) that are far deeply affected and will take much longer than the others to recover,” Kalra and Magow said.

Here’s a look at the other important movers and shakers of the week

Shiprocket Elevates CBO Akshay Ghulati As Cofounder

Shiprocket has elevated its chief business officer (CBO) Akshay Ghulati as a cofounder of the company. Ghulati has been with Shiprocket for over four years, having joined the company as the CBO in early 2016.

Prior to this, Akshay ran pan-Europe FBA for Amazon in the UK. At Shiprocket, Ghulati leads the overall business function including strategy, marketing and customer. A graduate of Wharton Business School in Economics, he also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Shiprocket is a logistics aggregator for global and domestic shipping for MSMEs operating in the ecommerce sector.

Paytm Mall Promotes Abhishek Rajan

Paytm Mall has also promoted Abhishek Rajan as the chief operating officer of the company. During the last four years, Rajan, who is an IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus, worked with Paytm’s travel business.

In his new role, Rajan will set oversee the operations across categories, products, technology, supply chain, marketing and finance. He will specifically focus on strengthening the commerce customer experience and expanding the hyperlocal merchant base, thereby aiming to enable more kirana stores to be part of the digital commerce journey. He will continue to oversee Paytm’s travel vertical till the time a new business head is appointed.

Paytm Mall is the ecommerce vertical of Noida-based payments giant Paytm.

BharatPe Appoints Labs Ankur Jain

BharatPe has strengthened its leadership team by appointing Ankur Jain as chief product officer. At the new role, Jain is responsible for the complete product lifecycle and innovation at BharatPe.

Jain, an alumnus of Stanford University has an experience of working in deep technology startups like Kosmix and Instalocate and retail giant Walmart. Prior to BharatPe, he was CEO and cofunder of Instalocate.

BharatPe is a Delhi-based fintech startup which facilitates peer-to-merchant (p2m) UPI transactions and also offers financial services to retailers and merchants.

Antler Appoints Rajiv Srivatsa

Antler has appointed furniture ecommerce platform Urban Ladder’s cofounder Rajiv Srivatsa as a partner. Srivatsa, who had exited Urban Ladder in October 2019, added, “I am just super excited to be part of this journey, to build 100s of great startups and founders in India, for India and the globe.”

He had cofounded Urban Ladder in 2012 and was also the chief product and technology officer of the company. Srivatsa will help Antler set up an office in Bengaluru and will work on plans to expand the footprint of the venture capital firm to other big cities in India in the coming years.

Antler is a Singapore-based global early-stage venture capital firm that gives startups funding support and global reach.

Ecom Express Appoints Amit Kumar

Logistics major Ecom Express has appointed Amit Kumar as company’s general manager for environmental health and safety (EHS). In his current role, Kumar will be responsible for the health and safety of 30000+ employees working across over 2600 locations.

His responsibilities will also include ensuring compliance, implementation, communications and adherence to the EHS regulations and best practices set by the government. He will also provide his expertise, consulting and services to ensure these are in compliance with safety norms.

Delhi-based logistics solution provider Ecom Express provides end-to-end logistics solutions to the online marketplace.

Apple Appoints Ipsita Dasgupta

Apple has appointed Ipsita Dasgupta as India country manager for managing its over-the-top streaming services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music and the App Store.

Prior to joining Apple, Dasgupta was the president of the strategy and new ventures at Disney+ Hotstar. She will step in the shoes of Khushboo Ponwar who has been made head of business development for Apple in India, Middle East, Turkey and Africa last year.