Kalyan Krishnamurthy To Be Flipkart CEO As Battle With Amazon Intensifies

Locked in a fierce battle with Amazon and other e-commerce players, Flipkart has announced yet another rejig in its management structure by promoting  Kalyan Krishnamurthy as the CEO of the company. Mr Krishnamurthy replaces co-founder Binny Bansal, who will now be the group CEO.

Another co-founder Sachin Bansal continues to be the executive chairman of the Bengaluru-headquartered company.

The latest rejig comes at a time when global e-commerce major Amazon is expanding its India operations by investing billions of dollars in the country.

In January 2016, Sachin Bansal was replaced by co-founder Binny Bansal as CEO. Before the January 2016, rejig Binny Bansal was the chief operating officer.

Mr Krishnamurthy had joined Flipkart in June 2016 from Tiger Global, which is one of the largest investors in the e-commerce firm. Prior to the latest rejig, Mr Krishnamurthy was heading the Category Design Organisation.

In another change, Nitin Seth, presently the chief administrative officer, will be the COO for Flipkart.

In an internal note, Flipkart said the goal of the reorganisation is to "increase focus on Flipkart Group, consolidate to simplify organisation and creation of top-team with clear accountabilities".

"2016 has been truly an extraordinary year for Flipkart." said Binny Bansal. "We effected a complete turnaround of the business and consolidated our leadership position in ecommerce. Our execution engine is revved up," added Mr Bansal

Flipkart has tried to consolidate its position in the market through acquisition of smaller rivals in the fashion space. It acquired domestic online fashion retailers Jabong (for $70 million) and Myntra (for $300 million) in the past.

The highly competitive e-commerce market in India has driven players to offer steep discounts in a bid to snag market share. This in turn has raised concerns around profitability and dented valuations of many e-tailers including Flipkart.