Ashish Vijayvergiya, Flipkart’s Vice President and Chief of Staff to CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, is preparing to launch a new business from within the e-commerce giant, joining the ranks of internal entrepreneurs like the founders of PhonePe and super.money, according to a Moneycontrol report.
While the exact contours of the new venture are still under discussion, initial ideas revolved around a fantasy gaming platform. However, insiders now suggest the startup may lean toward the consumption and content space, an area Flipkart is keen on exploring further.
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Ashish was mulling an exit to start something independently, but Flipkart’s top brass stepped in and offered him the opportunity to build a business within the company,” person familiar with the matter told in the report.
Vijayvergiya, who has spent over ten years at Flipkart, is now expected to remain and lead this new initiative under Flipkart’s umbrella.
This playbook mirrors the company’s approach with senior VP Prakash Sikaria, who launched super.money, a UPI-based credit-first fintech platform incubated within Flipkart. The startup is now in talks with external investors to raise between $60-100 million at a unicorn valuation of $1 billion — just two years after its inception.
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A similar story unfolded with PhonePe, now a fintech behemoth eyeing a public listing with a valuation of over $15 billion. Started by ex-Flipkart employees in 2015 and acquired by Flipkart a year later, PhonePe eventually spun off as a standalone entity in 2022.
Vijayvergiya’s upcoming venture is expected to follow this proven trajectory — incubated in-house, scaled under Flipkart’s guidance, and potentially spun out as an independent business. However, the final blueprint of the business and launch timelines remain under wraps, the report added.
The move also comes as Walmart pushes Flipkart to rein in its cash burn — from $40 million to $20 million monthly — as the company eyes a more frugal and sustainable growth path ahead of a possible public market debut.
Flipkart has not officially commented on the developments.
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