Jason Kothari quits as Infibeam president after just four months, takes up advisory role

Jason Kothari has quit as the president of Infibeam Avenues Ltd, the publicly listed e-commerce company said on Friday.

Kothari has "informed the company that he is required to spend more time abroad due to personal reasons", Infibeam said in a stock-exchange filing. He will continue to be associated with the company as a senior adviser, it added.

Kothari had joined Infibeam after leaving as the chief strategy and investment officer at e-commerce company Snapdeal in June.

Kothari's departure comes at a time when Infibeam's share price has plunged in recent weeks.

A WhatsApp message linked to brokerage firm Equirus Securities caused the company’s shares to fall 71% on September 28. The message allegedly questioned the accounting practices and corporate governance at the company. 

Infibeam had denied the allegations at the time. Following the incident, Infibeam had written to the Information Technology ministry and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to clamp down on WhatsApp saying it was spreading ‘economic disturbance.’ 

Shares of Infibeam jumped 13% on the BSE on Friday morning to trade around Rs 37.60 apiece. The shares are still down about 85% since the one-year high of Rs 242.80 on 18 September.

Digital media platform Entrackr first reported Kothari's departure earlier on Friday.

Kothari, who was hired by Snapdeal in 2017, was instrumental in pushing the e-commerce firm to a marketplace model and sell its logistics arm Vulcan Express to Future Logistics. He was also heading Snapdeal payment arm FreeCharge prior to its sale to Axis Bank. 

In May, Infibeam acquired Snapdeal’s multi-channel order management service Unicommerce.

Known as a turnaround specialist, Kothari was the CEO of real estate portal Housing.com before joining Snapdeal. He cut down expenses at the beleaguered company after the exit of its co-founders, brokering a deal with PropTiger.

Incorporated in 2007, Infibeam started as an e-commerce suite focused on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Currently, it generates most of its revenue by providing online services and payment gateway through its payments gateway CC Avenue to its SME clients on the Buildabazaar platform.