Snapdeal’s Chief Product Officer Anand Chandrasekaran has quit, just a year after he joined and adding to the list of recent high profile exits of Silicon Valley talents from the Indian Unicorns (private firms valued over $1 billion).
The development also comes a month after Punit Soni, another high profile hire from the Valley quit rival Flipkart to start his own venture.
The exits also come at a critical time when Snapdeal and Flipkart are battling against U.S.-based Amazon for market share.
Mr. Anand is also looking to start his own venture.
Snapdeal’s co-founder Rohit Bansal announced the news of Chandrasekaran’s exit on Twitter on Tuesday.
“Thanks for the support. We did in 1 what would take three years anywhere. Incredible passion @Snapdeal. Best still to come. Farewell, keep rocking!,” Mr. Bansal said in his tweet.
"Anand has done some stellar work on the product side atSnapdeal. His insights and attention to detail have helped us traverse quickly towards launching and improving products at Snapdeal. We wish Anand the very best for his entrepreneurial journey ahead,” the company said in a statement.
Mr. Chandrasekaran was the Chief Product Officer at Airtel before he joined Snapdeal in June 2015. Before that, Mr. Anand was with Yahoo, where he held roles of Senior Director for Mobile. Prior to Yahoo, he was Director of Product at Openwave.
There has been slew of Silicon Valley talents quitting from Indian start-ups. Two of Zomato’s successive product heads Tanmay Saksena and Namita Gupta, hired from the Valley, had quit last year.
