Flipkart has announced the appointment of Balaji Thiagarajan as its new Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO), a move aimed at strengthening its technological leadership and accelerating innovation. The appointment, shared by CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy in an internal email, comes as the company looks to fast-track its AI-first strategy. Thiagarajan succeeds Jeyandran Venugopal, who moved to Reliance Retail earlier this year.
With more than 25 years of experience at global technology leaders including Google, Microsoft, Uber, and Yahoo, Thiagarajan brings deep expertise in scaling products and platforms. His extensive background is expected to play a pivotal role in guiding Flipkart through the next phase of its growth.
Highlighting Thiagarajan’s significance, Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, “His deep expertise in AI will be invaluable to us as we continue to build a future-ready organisation.” He further emphasized that Balaji will focus on accelerating AI adoption, strengthening Flipkart’s technology architecture for advanced AI applications, and fostering innovation across its ecosystem—an essential step as the company navigates rapid digital transformation and intensifying competition.
Thiagarajan holds nine U.S. patents and boasts an impressive academic background with a BS in Electronics and Telecommunication from the University of Pune, an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Syracuse University, and an MBA from the Wharton School. Before joining Flipkart, he was the founder and CEO of Kasu.ai, a U.S.-based company focused on developing AI strategies to automate business processes, reflecting his commitment to driving efficiency and next-gen innovation.
As part of this leadership transition, Flipkart’s core technology leadership team—Ramesh Gururaja, Sandhya Kapoor, Bharath Chinamanthur, Amit Sachan, and Gaurav Mathur—will now report directly to Thiagarajan. His appointment aligns with Flipkart’s broader strategic evolution, which follows its recent $950 million funding round led by Google, further equipping the company to invest in AI-driven solutions and future-ready commerce experiences.
With Balaji Thiagarajan at the helm of product and technology, Flipkart is well-positioned to strengthen its competitive edge and lead the next wave of innovation in India’s ecommerce landscape.
“We welcome the Government’s landmark NextGen GST reforms, which reflect Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji’s vision of ease of living and ease of doing business. By lowering input costs for farmers, simplifying compliance for MSMEs, and enabling small sellers, artisans/weavers and smallholder farmers to seamlessly join e-commerce across states, these reforms will further strengthen India’s growth engine.
Timely implementation of these reforms ahead of the upcoming festival season will surely give a huge boost to consumption across categories, widen market access, and accelerate our collective journey towards a Viksit Bharat.” — Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group
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