It's confirmed: Ananth Narayanan steps down as Myntra CEO

Ending months of speculation, Myntra finally confirmed today that Ananth Narayanan had decided to step down as CEO of Myntra and Jabong. In an official statement, Myntra told YourStory,

“Ananth Narayanan has decided to step down as CEO of Myntra and Jabong to pursue external opportunities. Amar Nagaram has been named as Head, Myntra and Jabong, reporting to Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group.”

The news about Ananth Narayanan’s exit actively surfaced in November soon after Flipkart Chairman and Group CEO Binny Bansal's left following an investigation into allegations of ‘personal misconduct’. At the time, Flipkart-owned Myntra had denied that its CEO was leaving. Myntra CFO Dipanjan Basu is also reportedly set to also leave the company along with Ananth.

Sources also told YourStory that Ananth's departure from Myntra was inevitable as it was well known that he did not share the best of relations with his new boss, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

Earlier today, The Economic Times had reported that Narayanan was in discussions to take up the role of CEO with Hotstar, Star TV’s video streaming app, or might be moving to his previous employer, McKinsey & Company, in the US. The report also said that with Kalyan Krishnamurthy taking direct control of Myntra and Jabong, Ananth’s role in the company had become uncertain.

Ananth is one of the most respected CEOs in the online retail space, having steered Myntra to growth after its app-only strategy backfired badly. He joined Myntra in 2015, before which he was with McKinsey. He took over from Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal, who left to set up his new venture, Cure.fit.

As parting remarks, Ananth took to LinkedIn, to express his gratitude. He said,

"I have had the privilege of working with a fantastic team to help scale the business and transform fashion e-commerce in the country. Most of all, I'm proud of our people and our culture which is built on a unique set of values that make us truly distinctive!"

The new man on the job

Amar, who moved to Myntra from Flipkart in the management reshuffle last month, has been with the group for around seven years. The company described him as having "played a pivotal role in making shopping accessible, delightful and affordable on every connected device".

The statement described Amar's new position as "Head, Myntra and Jabong", which would imply that the position of Myntra CEO has been abolished.

Recently, Flipkart-owned Myntra Designs Private Ltd, which operates fashion e-tailer Myntra, reported that it had narrowed its losses by 76 percent to Rs 151.2 crore for the financial year ending March 2018. The loss for the previous financial year stood at Rs 627.7 crore, documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) revealed.

The online fashion portal also recorded an 80 percent fall in its revenue in FY 2018. The fall was attributed to the company hiving off its B2B entity (Myntra Jabong India Private Ltd), according to media reports.