Flipkart on its way to profitability, valuation markdowns didn't affect: Report

While Amazon and Flipkart are battling it out on the Diwali Sale front, the news about the latter’s CFO Sanjay Baweja exiting the company hit headlines. It had raised many eyebrows of the sudden exit amid the festive season that is most crucial for the many. However, Baweja, in an interview with Techcircle and Business Standard, spoke about Flipkart, reason to leave, financial position, and more. To begin with, he said the reason for leaving Flipkart is another opportunity that will let him work on something different than what he has been doing at the e-commerce site for the past two years. On the festive season, he said there will never be a right time to leave as something or the other keeps happening. He said that the tremendous growth at Flipkart had happened before he joined, and it was basically keeping up with the pace. Talking about the IPO, he said it is some distance away. “I think what’s more important is where I have brought the company and put it in such robust hands in terms of creating a clear roadmap of where we are and where we want to be,” he told Business Standard. He also emphasised that Flipkart’s ‘definitely on the path to profitability’. " We have a substantial amount of cash and a very strong run rate. Secondly, from a financial profitability (angle), if you look at numbers six months ago and now, there has been a substantial positive move," he told Techcircle. He believes that though not in the next six month, but the e-commerce store is on its path to see profitability. He also spoke about the Bansals and their leadership, which he believes will take the firm to greater heights. Speaking about Amazon, he said though they are very aggressive, Flipkart has managed to maintain lead. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley had lowered Flipkart’s valuation at under $10 bn . In July, there were reports around Flipkart’s performance-based layoffs putting 1000 jobs at stake. Baweja believes that valuation markdowns haven’t affected the company, and also shrugged off layoff rumours saying it was normal attrition.