Fashionara co-founder Arun Sirdeshmukh to head Amazon India's fashion vertical

Amazon India has appointed Arun Sirdeskhmukh, a co-founder of Fashionara.com, as head of its fashion department after the startup lifestyle portal shut operations recently.

The Economic Times reported the appointment citing Susan Saideman, vice president for global vendor management at Amazon.com.

As first reported by Techcircle, Fashionara closed its operations earlier this year, likely due to widening losses and a cash crunch. The firm's co-founder, Darpan Munjal, had quit the company in January.

The startup was set up in 2012 and raised Series A funding of $4 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners. Lightspeed managing director Bejul Somaia had previously told Techcircle that the VC firm exited Fashionara last year.

Prior to founding Fashionara, Sirdeshmukh was CEO of Reliance Trends.

Fashion is one of Amazon India's fastest-growing categories. The first quarter of 2016 saw the unit sales of fashion product rise 200% from a year earlier, the report said.

Amazon India's fashion vertical was previously steered by Vikas Purohit, who left the firm late last year to join mobile wallet and e-tailer Paytm's upcoming payments bank . However, he recently quit Paytm.

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