Tata Digital to rejig top deck, hires new CEO to steer Cliq

Shivcharan Pulugurtha, chief strategy and business officer of Tata Neu, has left just a year after joining the firm, even as the Mumbai-based conglomerate has hired Gopal Asthana as chief executive of its fashion business Tata Cliq which has been moved to Tata Digital, they said.

Asthana, former chief business officer of Nykaa Fashion, is replacing Vikas Purohit who had quit earlier this year and joined Meta. Asthana ‘s appointment is yet to be announced formally.

Pulugurtha was looking at planning and strategy at Tata Neu. Those responsibilities are likely to be split among executives like Bhanu Pathak and Shoumyan Biswas for now, people cited above said.

Pathak, who has been looking at operations of key platforms on Tata Neu, is likely to get additional responsibilities of business verticals, they added. He has been closely working with BigBasket CEO Hari Menon on the egrocery business and would also work on 1mg, going forward, sources added.

Biswas, who is currently marketing head of Tata Neu, is expected to further lead scaling Tata Digital’s loyalty programme Neu Pass.

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Tata Digital is likely to see more changes among its executives in the coming weeks, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter.“Tata Cliq finally has a CEO and it’s a growing business now under Tata Digital,” one of them said. “These changes are being finalised after the annual appraisal was recently closed at the ecommerce unit of Tata group.”

An email sent to Tata Digital did not elicit any response on the matter.

Changes

Pulugurtha, a former executive at food delivery firm Swiggy, was among the key executives who came to Tata Digital after Mukesh Bansal – who previously started Myntra and also is cofounder of Cultfit – joined the firm as its president. ET reported in March that Bansal has formally left the firm. Prior to that, ET had reported that Bansal had taken a ‘step back’ from daily operations at the Tata ecommerce unit.

“Certain executives came to Tata Digital because of the opportunity to work with Tata group while some were personally hired by Bansal,” one of the persons aware of the changes said. “The executives who have left have essentially followed Bansal’s departure from the group.”

ET had reported in December last year that Prateek Mehta and Sharath Bulusu were among senior executives to have left Tata Digital even as former WhatsApp Pay India head Vinay Choletti was expected to join the company. The company hasn’t announced it yet but Choletti has joined the firm, according to sources.

Other senior executives are also likely to see a reshuffle in their roles within the organisation as the company leadership is looking to streamline these roles to continue scaling operations after two years of operation.

IPL push

People aware of the performance of the superapp said Tata Neu clocked 20% higher sales than planned during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season this year. Tata Neu was the title sponsor of IPL 2023 and went about its marketing plan in a more planned manner this year.

ET had reported in March that Tata Digital CEO Pratik Pal along with his team had revamped the superapp before the start of IPL season.

“They (Tata Neu) have surpassed the number for the first time compared to estimates,” a person aware of the matter said. “The Neu Coins push as well as better campaign and onboarding quality users helped.”

Changes in Tata Digital are in sync with the group’s plan to double down on the growth it has seen during April-May period, which was higher than the previous quarter, the person said.

Pal, in an interview to ET, had also said Neu had seen a surge in business after reworking the app in time for the recently concluded IPL. He said the company is looking at turning profitable in a three-to-five-year timeframe. Tatas have invested around $2 billion in Tata Digital.

Also read | Invested more than $2 billion in Neu; app revamp has paid off: Tata Digital CEO

“We have reached 75 million NeuPass members and 60 million cumulative installs,” Pal said in the interview. “Almost 60% of our customers are repeat customers while multi-category customers have increased from less than 10% a year back to over 25%.”

Before IPL 2023 began, ET had reported citing internal data that Neu had contributed less than 10% of gross sales to Tata’s two biggest digital assets – egrocer BigBasket and epharmacy 1mg – since its launch in April last year.