FreeCharge CEO Govind Rajan quits; Jason Kothari to take charge of biz ops

Freecharge CEO Govind Rajan has resigned within a year of taking charge at the Snapdeal subsidiary.
Going forward Jason Kothari will oversee the business operations of FreeCharge as part of his overall responsibilities of portfolio management as the Chief Strategy and Investment Officer of Snapdeal, the company said.
“It has been a unique privilege to helm FreeCharge in these exciting times of rapid growth and user focused innovation. I am confident that FreeCharge will achieve still greater heights under its incredibly talented team and I look forward to facilitating the transition over the next few weeks,” Govind Rajan told Indiaretailling in an email response.
“Govind has brought incredible energy and focus in growing FreeCharge. The pace of progress will continue with the strong team that he has built. I am sure he will bring the same level of passion and resolve to whatever he chooses next. I wish him the very best,” CEO and Co-Founder, Snapdeal, Kunal Bahl said in a same statement provided to Indiaretailing.
Rajan, who had joined Jasper Infotech in July 2015, initially held the role of chief strategy officer at Snapdeal. However, the former Bharti Airtel senior executive, who had served as chief marketing officer for Bharti’s B2C (business-to-consumer) unit, as well as CEO of Airtel Money, took over the top job at Freecharge in May last year.
The past three months have seen a number of high-level exits at Snapdeal, including Sandeep Komaravelly, head of peer-to-peer marketplace Shopo; Tony Navin, head of partnerships and strategic investments; and Abhishek Kumar, head of corporate development, mergers and acquisitions and investments.
Snapdeal, run by Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, has been trying to independently raise funds for FreeCharge but the company has struggled to attract investors in the past six to 10 months.