FreeCharge CEO Govind Rajan resigns

NEW DELHI: Govind Rajan, the chief executive of Jasper Infotech-owned digital payments platform FreeCharge, has resigned from the company.

Rajan is believed to have submitted his resignation on Tuesday, and the same was accepted by the Jasper Infotech leadership. It is yet unclear the exact reasons for Rajan’s departure from the company, or his plans going forward.

Jasper Infotech spokespersons confirmed the developments to ET late on Tuesday.

“Govind has brought incredible energy and focus in growing FreeCharge. The pace of progress will continue with the strong team he has built . I am sure he will bring the same level of passion and resolve to whatever he chooses next. I wish him the very best,” Kunal Bahl, chief executive, Jasper Infotech said in a statement.

“It has been a unique privilege to helm FreeCharge in these exciting times of rapid growth and user focused innovation. I am confident that FreeCharge will achieve still greater heights under its incredibly talented team, and I look forward to facilitating the transition over the next few weeks,” Rajan said in the same statement provided to ET.

Former Housing.com CEO, Jason Kothari, who joined Snapdeal last month as its chief strategy and investment officer, will oversee the business operations of FreeCharge, as part of his overall responsibilities of portfolio management, the company said.

Rajan’s departure is the latest top-level exit from the Jasper Infotech stable, which also owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal, while also possibly being the most high profile resignation, since the departure of Anand Chandrasekaran, the company’s product head in May last year.

In September last year, Chandrasekaran was snapped up by global technology giant Facebook as its head of platform and product partnerships, with a particular focus on its Messenger service.

Rajan, who had joined Jasper Infotech in July 2015, initially held the role of chief strategy officer at Snapdeal. However, the former Bharti Airtel senior executive, who had served as chief marketing officer for Bharti's B2C (business-to-consumer) unit, as well as CEO of Airtel Money, took over the top job at Freecharge in May last year.

That transition also saw Kunal Shah, co-founder of Freecharge step down from his role as CEO of the company, and assume a non-operational role as chairman and chief mentor of Freecharge.

Earlier this month, ET reported that Shah had joined marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as an advisor, and is expected to play an active role in mentoring Sequoia’s large portfolio, spread across India and South Asia.

Freecharge, which was acquired by Jasper Infotech in a cash-and-stock deal estimated at $400-$450 million in 2015, making it, at the time, the largest startup acquisition in India, is seen as a focal point of ecommerce marketplace's growth strategy, as it bids to create a complete online ecosystem of goods and services.

Jasper Infotech, has been in negotiations for over 18 months with multiple investors – both, strategic and financial – to raise $150 million-$300 million in fresh capital for its digital payments platform. However, the company is yet to close the round, which was first reported by ET in October 2015.

Like its Bengaluru-based rival, Flipkart, Snapdeal, too, has continued to see a steady churn of its top leadership.

The last few months have seen the departure of Abhishek Kumar, Jasper’s head of corporate development and mergers and acquisitions, Sandeep Komaravelly, who headed Shopo, the consumer-to-consumer online platform for small sellers and Tony Navin, who led Snapdeal’s partnerships and strategic initiatives, among others.
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