Flipkart names Kalyan Krishnamurthy as CEO

Kalyan Krishnamurthy becomes Flipkart CEO, co-founder Binny Bansal becomes Group CEO as Flipkart continues its restructuring for a second year in a row, after Amazon closes in as market rival.

Flipkart, India’s top e-commerce group, on Monday appointed Kalyan Krishnamurthy as its new CEO, replacing co-founder Binny Bansal.

Flipkart appointed its new CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy as it steps up its e-commerce battle against Amazon. (Flipkart)

Bansal has been elevated to become the Group CEO.

Krishnamurthy joined Flipkart in June 2016 and has been deeply involved in the company’s overhauling process. It is Krishnamurthy’s second stint with the e-commerce group where he previously worked as the chief financial officer before joining Tiger Global as the managing director.

Sachin Bansal, Flipkart’s other co-founder and former CEO, will continue with his present role as the executive chairman.

In 2016, Krishnamurthy started heading the category management division in Flipkart. He is known to play a key role in the company’s battle for market share against Amazon.

His joining coincides with Jeff Bezos’s announcement of Amazon’s mega round of $ 3 billion investments, which has fuelled a new round of discount war in India’s $20 billion e-commerce industry.

With Krishnamurthy, who is known as a numbers guy, Flipkart might focus on improving its unit economics and profitability.

Flipkart houses a bunch of companies including fashion e-trailers Myntra and Jabong, payments app Phonepe, and logistics company Ekart.