Flipkart names Balaji Thiagarajan as Chief Product & Technology Officer

Walmart-owned Flipkart has appointed Balaji Thiagarajan as its new Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO). The appointment signals a strong push to enhance the e-commerce giant’s AI and technology capabilities.

In his new role Thiagarajan will drive AI adoption, modernize tech architecture, and lead innovation, strengthening the e-commerce giant’s technology capabilities and future-ready platform. Thiagarajan with his deep expertise in AI would help Flipkart accelerate AI adoption, modernize tech architecture, and drive innovation at scale.

Thiagarajan joined LendingClub in February 2022 as Chief Technology Officer, leading product development, technology operations, product management, and enterprise program management for the company’s financial applications and business platforms. Before that, he served as CTO and Senior Vice President of Product Development at Change Healthcare, a healthcare technology company.

Earlier roles in his career span a range of senior technology leadership positions, including Vice President at Uber overseeing core transportation platform services,  Group Vice President at Oracle, Senior VP of Engineering and Operations at Skyhigh Networks (later acquired by McAfee), Corporate VP of Software Engineering at Google, Senior Director of Engineering in Ads, Analytics, and Hadoop Infrastructure at Yahoo, and Senior Director of Engineering at Microsoft’s Windows Live (Consumer Internet Systems).

Most recently, he founded Kasu.ai, an AI-driven platform focused on optimizing business operations, His appointment follows the departure of former CTPO Jeyandran Venugopal, who exited in February and is reportedly set to join Reliance Retail Ventures as CEO.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pune, followed by a Master of Science in Computer Science from Syracuse University. He also earned an MBA in Finance and Operations from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Additional training includes a certificate in Machine Learning from Stanford University.

Flipkart has seen a wave of senior-level exits in recent months, including Ankit Jain (SVP, Grocery & Supply Chain), Prajakta Kanaglekar (VP, HR for Tech), and Anurag Singhvi (VP, Analytics). Ganesh Ramaswamy, who held leadership roles at both Flipkart and its subsidiary Cleartrip, has also moved on. As Flipkart gears up for a potential IPO, Thiagarajan’s entry signals a renewed focus on tech-led growth and organizational agility.