Tata Digital To Reshuffle Leadership Team, Hires New CEO For Tata CLiQ

Tata Group’s digital arm Tata Digital is reportedly undertaking a major reshuffle in its top ranks across verticals such as its super app Tata Neu and ecommerce vertical CLiQ.

According to a report by ET, Shivcharan Pulugurtha, chief strategy and business officer of Tata Neu, recently left the company after just a year of joining. Meanwhile, Tata Digital has appointed former Nykaa chief business officer Gopal Asthana as the CEO of Tata CLiQ.

However, the formal announcement of Asthana’s appointment is still pending.

Vinay Choletti, former head of WhatsApp Pay in India, has also joined Tata Digital, though an official announcement has not been made yet.

The planning and strategy responsibilities, which were previously handled by Pulugurtha, are being divided among other executives, including Bhanu Prathak and Shoumyan Biswas.

Prathak currently handles operations of key platforms within Tata Neu, having worked with BigBasket CEO Hari Menon in the past. He is expected to take over additional responsibilities in Tata Neu’s business verticals. Biswas, who is currently the marketing head of Tata Neu, will lead the expansion of NeuPass, Tata Digital’s loyalty program.

The report also cited other sources as saying that Tata Digital will witness further executive changes in the coming weeks.

Apart from Pulugurtha, many other key executives who joined Tata Digital following Mukesh Bansal’s appointment as president have also departed. The departure of these executives appears to be linked to Bansal’s exit. Bansal, who previously founded Myntra and cofounded Cult.fit, left the organisation earlier this year.

As Tata Digital aims to further scale its operations after two years of establishment, other senior executives within the organisation are also likely to see a reshuffling of their roles.

The changes at the Mumbai-based conglomerate are reported to be in line with the Tata Group’s larger strategy to leverage the growth observed during April-May this year, surpassing the previous quarter’s performance. Tata Digital CEO Pratik Pal told ET in an earlier interview that Tata Neu witnessed a surge in business after the app was revamped in time for the recently concluded IPL.

Pal said Tata Neu reached 75 Mn NeuPass members and saw over 60 Mn app installs. He added that nearly 60% of Tata Neu’s customers were repeat users.

Tata Group was reportedly said to be mulling another $2 Bn investment into Tata Neu in an attempt to bolster its digital business, with an aim to hit profitability in the next few years. In an attempt to diversify its offerings, TataNeu launched reskilling vertical NeuSkills in April this year.

NeuSkills will start offering two bootcamp-based courses – data analytics and frontend development later this month – according to its website. Further, NeuSkills is also launching a short-term programme for Google’s app-building software Flutter.