Urban Ladder names former Croma exec Ajit Joshi president and COO

By Disha Sharma

  • 19 Jul 2017
Ajit Joshi, President & COO, Urban Ladder

Bangalore-based Urban Ladder Home Décor Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates a furniture e-tailer, has appointed Ajit Joshi as president and chief operating officer.

Joshi was previously CEO and MD of Tata group-owned electronics retail chain Croma. Earlier, he also led operations and institutional sales business for Shopper’s Stop as vice president - operations.

“Ajit’s addition to the team is a crucial step in scaling our retail and growth strategy for offline distribution,” Ashish Goel, CEO and co-founder of Urban Ladder, said in a statement.

In February this year, Urban Ladder raised close to Rs 102 crore (around $15 million) in a fresh round of funding from existing investors, including Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview Capital and Sequoia Capital.

In August last year, the furniture e-tailer raised venture debt worth $3 million (Rs 20 crore then) from Trifecta Capital.

In September last year, Urban Ladder moved away from following a standalone model by joining hands with e-commerce major Amazon to enhance sales.

Over the last one year, at least eight senior executives have left the startup.

Rushabh Sanghavi, vice president of category and sourcing; Nikhil Ramaprakash, vice president of sales and online marketing; Parag Shah, vice president of fit-outs, urban interiors and alliances; and Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer resigned in March.

In July last year, Urban Ladder’s chief technology officer Apurva Dalal joined cab-hailing major Uber to lead its engineering division in India.

Urban Ladder was co-founded by Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in July 2012.