FreeCharge CEO Govind Rajan quits amidst funding crunch at Snapdeal

As e-commerce giant Snapdeal struggles to crawl out of its financial crunch, Govind Rajan is stepping down from his role as the CEO of Freecharge, the digital payments platform, after being associated with this role for almost nine months. Kunal Bahl, Co-founder, Snapdeal confirmed the news by quoting the following to LiveMint:

“Govind has brought incredible energy and focus in growing FreeCharge. The pace of progress will continue with the strong team that 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.”

Currently Jason Kothari, who joined Snapdeal recently as the Chief Strategy Officer has been appointed to oversee the business operations of Freecharge. Prior to joining Snapdeal, he was the CEO of Housing.com. Economic Times reported that Rajan had submitted his resignation on Tuesday, and the same was accepted by the Jasper Infotech leadership. However, the exact reasons behind Rajan’s departure remain to be known.

“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,” said Rajan in an email statement to LiveMint.

In May 2016, Rajan’s post in FreeCharge escalated from that of the COO to the CEO of the company. He had also served as the CEO of Airtel Money in the past. This resignation marks Snapdeal’s fourth top-level exit this year, and the biggest since the departure of Anand Chandrasekaran, the company’s product head in May last year. Earlier this month, Snapdeal also shut down its C2C handicrafts marketplace Shopo, with plans to lay off a major 30 percent of its full-time workforce.