ShopClues' trouble escalates: Amidst cash crunch, Unicorn faces top level exits

Amidst cash crunch and tough time, e-commerce firm ShopClues has been facing top-level attrition which may be a setback for the Gurugram-based Unicorn.

Recently, Nitin Kochhar, Senior Vice-President for Categories and Marketplace, and Raunak Raheja, Director of Category Management, have quit the online marketplace.

According to a BusinessLine report sourced from LinkedIn profile, Kochhar who joined ShopClues in 2015 from Flipkart has already joined logistics start-up Rivigo as Business head for Zoom.

Raheja also joined ShopClues in 2015 is likely to join Flipkart in Mumbai. He was the former head of retail imports at eBay. However, Raheja’s designation on LinkedIn has not been updated yet, the report added.

Last year, ShopClues had also seen exits of more than 250 employees, nearly 20 per cent of its 1,200-odd workforce, in a matter of three months.

Responding to latest exits, ShopClues spokesperson said, “Nitin had decided to move out of e-commerce and Raunak moved out of NCR for family reasons.”

The development also comes on the back of the Tiger Global-backed company's struggle to raise fresh funds. Besides, the firm hasn't been able to find a stable ground in one of the most fledgling e-commerce economies in the world.

ShopClues, which joined Unicorn club in 2016 had recently raised a $1 million bridge round from Ronnie Screwvala-managed Unilazer Ventures.

Also Read: How Unicorn ShopClues lost the plot and fighting for survival now

Singapore government's GIC and its existing investors Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners invested about $150 million in the marketplace company. Since then the company has raised venture debt and cut down its business in several categories.

According to data and research firm Tofler, the company’s total revenues grew marginally by 5 per cent at Rs 188 crore in 2017 as against a two-fold jump the previous year. However, the company’s losses declined by 13 per cent to Rs 332 crore during FY17.

Over the past 12-18 months, Flipkart and Amazon have been eating up ShopClues marketshare rapidly. It has lost 80 per cent marketshare to the duo.