June 18, 2016: The chief product officer (CPO) of Jabong, Saurabh Goel has quit to launch his own venture in the financial technology space after serving almost eight months in the company.
Goel was roped in as part a senior management overhaul that the company made last year before Sanjeev Mohanty came on board as the new chief executive officer and managing director. “He always wanted to launch his start up and thought that this was the opportune time,” said Mohanty in an email.
He added that currently the company is looking out for a CPO and recently appointed chief operating officer Muralikrishnan B is directly overseeing this role for the moment.
Goel confirmed the development adding that his startup, Prosperx.com, will be launched in July. It will be a marketplace for financial products like mutual funds, insurance etc.
“I saw this opportunity and it was the right time, fin-tech is ready for disruption,” said Goel.
Goel’s exit comes at a time when Jabong is struggling to turn around its business amid a funding crunch.
In September 2014, Jabong was merged with four international online fashion businesses by its investors, Germany’s Rocket Internet and Swedish investment bank Kinnevik, to create a company called Global Fashion Group (GFG) that was worth €2.7 billion (around Rs.21,600 crore).
Last July, GFG raised €150 million (about Rs1,060 crore) from Rocket Internet and Kinnevik, at a valuation of €3.1 billion. In April however, it raised €300 million ($339 million) from Kinnevik and Rocket Internet at a valuation of €1 billion ($1.13 billion), a third of the previous valuation.
In February, Saurabh Srivastava, the chief marketing officer who was also hired last year around the same time, quit the company. Srivastava was brought in from mobile wallet firm Mobikwik.
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