Tata Neu CTO Sauvik Banerjjee quits four months after launch

Sauvik Banerjjee, founding member and chief technology officer (CTO) of Tata Neu, has resigned from the ecommerce venture of the Tata Group, people aware of the matter said.

His exit comes just four months after the Mumbai-based conglomerate launched the much-hyped ‘super app’ in April . Neu was launched with a marketing blitz around the Indian Premier League, for which it was the title sponsor.

Banerjjee joined Tata Group in 2016 as CTO of Tata Cliq. He moved to Tata Digital in 2019 and has been part of the core team ever since. Insiders said Banerjjee is keen to relocate abroad for personal reasons.


People briefed on the matter said the Tatas may replace Banerjjee with a TCS veteran but is also looking at external candidates.

“They (Tata Neu) have been looking for a CTO externally as well, and some executives at top startups have been approached,” one of them said

Tata Neu’s CTO post has fallen vacant at a time when it is looking to fix various tech glitches and enhance the shopping experience on the app.

ET reported in June that the ecommerce vertical had missed its monthly sales target of $200 million by about $50 million in the first month after its launch.

An official who did not wish to be named said, “TCS has a deep talent pool that group companies keep dipping into. Tata Digital has kept its options open, but may explore the possibility of roping in an external talent to have a diverse talent pool.”

A spokesperson for Tata Digital did not respond to ET’s queries till press time Thursday.

ET previously reported that Mukesh Bansal, president at Tata Digital, has been hiring senior executives from ecommerce firms including Flipkart, Udaan, Blinkit and others.

Hari Menon, cofounder and CEO of BigBasket, is a senior executive at the group who has a critical role in scaling Tata Neu.