Binny Bansal resigns as Chairman & Group CEO of Flipkart

Binny Bansal, Flipkart’s co-founder, Chairman and Group CEO, resigned on Tuesday, following an independent investigation of an allegation of serious personal misconduct against him, the company’s parent Walmart said in a statement.

Bansal, on his part, has strongly denied the allegation. “While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it revealed other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how he responded to the situation, because of which his decision to resign was accepted,” the statement said.

In the meantime, Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be the CEO of Flipkart, which will now include Myntra and Jabong, and continue to operate as separate platforms within the Flipkart business. Ananth Narayanan will continue as CEO of Myntra and Jabong and will report to Kalyan. Sameer Nigam will continue to lead PhonePe as CEO. Both Kalyan and Sameer will report directly to the board. Binny will continue to be on the board of Flipkart.

According to Walmart, Bansal has been contemplating a transition for some time now, and the company has been working with him on a succession plan, which has now been accelerated with the allegations of personal misconduct. In an e-mail to Flipkart, employees said he was left stunned by the allegations and that he and his family were going through difficult times. “Events relate to a claim of serious personal misconduct made against me. My decision to step down has been accelerated by certain personal events. Best to step away as chairman and group CEO,” said Bansal.

With Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart abruptly exiting the company he founded with Binny in less than pleasant circumstances in May when Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart and with the recent turn of events, India’s largest and most popular e-commerce firm will now be founder-less.

“The rate of innovation in a company is directly proportionate to the founders. Therefore, when founders leave the company, innovation takes a solid beating, which is not good for Flipkart now as competition with Amazon is currently at its peak. With both founders gone, a sense of nervousness about the company’s future will set in among employees, who are aligned with the founders’ vision for the company” said Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director of Bertelsmann India Investments, whose portfolio companies include Pepperfry, Licious, Treebo, Lendingkart, Roposo, among others.

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