Excl: Natural Mantra's founder Nishant Nayak quits to join Gitanjali's jewellery e-com venture

Nishant Nayak, founder and CEO of lifestyle e-com venture Natural Mantra, has left the startup to join eGitanjali, the e-commerce venture of diamond and jewellery major Gitanjali Group. Reasons for his exit are not disclosed (we have contacted the company for more information and will update the report). Nayak is now VP, e-commerce, at eGitanjali.

As part of his new role, he will look after the overall operations of Gitanjaligifts.com, an e-commerce site that offers gifting options for diamond and fashion jewellery, art pieces, watches, gold coins and bars from leading brands.

Though Nayak has left Natural Mantra, he continues to hold a stake in the online portal, owned and operated by Happy Earth Lifestyle Solutions Pvt Ltd.

He has over 10 years of experience and prior to setting up Natural Mantra, he was the business head of product and digital marketing at Futurebazaar.com. He also worked at companies such as eBay, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Mastek and Mentorix Learning Technoliges. He holds a BE in computer engineering from University of Mumbai and an MS in management information systems from the University of Illinois (the US).

After Nayak's exit, Himanshu Agrawal, business head at Natural Mantra, has been looking after the day-to-day operations of the company. Started in December 2011, Natural Mantra is a lifestyle e-com site that assists shoppers looking to buy natural, organic and earth-friendly products. Currently, the firm has over 2,000 products in bath and beauty, home decor, organic food and nutritional supplements, eco-fashion and personal care product segments.

Last August, Freemont Partners Pvt Ltd had invested an undisclosed amount in the startup. While the amount is not disclosed, sources told Techcircle.in that it was in the Rs 10-15 lakh range.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)