Myntra appoints Shamik Sharma as chief product and technology officer

Bangalore-based Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd, which runs the fashion and lifestyle e-commerce site Myntra.com, has appointed Shamik Sharma as its chief product and technology officer. Sharma will head both product management and technology functions, and will be responsible for driving the overall technology strategy at the company.

An IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, Sharma has over 15 years of technology experience. Prior to joining Myntra, he had held senior positions in companies like Lytro Inc (vice-president, software), RockYou (SVP, technology & engineering), StumbleUpon (VP, engineering) and Yahoo (director, engineering), among others. He also co-founded Confluent Software, a technology firm later acquired by Oblix (which in turn, was acquired by Oracle). He holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, US.

Commenting on the new hire, Mukesh Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Myntra.com, said, "Shamik is a veteran from the Bay area and brings a wealth of experience from many leading startups. He will help build world-class technology to drive the business vision and operational scale at Myntra."

Earlier this month, Myntra acquired Exclusively.in Inc., the company behind the private label brand Shersingh.com and the fashion site Exclusively.in, in a cash-cum-equity deal.

Prior to that, the company appointed Ganesh Subramanian as its chief merchandising officer from Bharti Walmart, where he was vice-president and general merchandising manager (Softlines).

Myntra is one of the heaviest-funded players in the e-commerce business, having raised around $40 million since it started operations in 2007. Earlier this year, the company raised $20 million in a Series C funding, led by Tiger Global. Previously, it had raised $14 million in its second round of funding from Tiger Global and the then existing investors IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners. In November 2008, Myntra got $5 million in Series A funding from NEA-IndoUS Ventures, IDG Ventures and Accel Partners. It had also received seed funding from Accel Partners (formerly Erasmic Venture Fund), Sasha Mirchandani (from Mumbai Angels) and another angel investor in October 2007.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)