Soni will move to Bengaluru.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Flipkart, India’s billion dollar e-commerce firm, has poached a senior executive from Silicon Valley after former Google and Motorola VP Punit Soni agreed to become its Chief Product Officer.
Soni spent eight years at Google in the United States, the latter part of which he served as VP of Product Management for Motorola before the phone maker was sold to Lenovo. He will relocate to Flipkart headquarters in Bengaluru, India, in order to fulfill his new role.
In a post on Google+, Soni explained he could have gainfully remained in the U.S., but felt compelled to make the move due to India’s vast potential and the meteoric rise of its startup and technology sectors.
As I explored ideas across sectors and across different life stages of companies, I flew down to India to personally see the change spreading across the country at the intersection of a mobile revolution spearheaded by phones like Moto G, and hundreds of entrepreneurs reinventing every aspect of life out there. Flipkart stood out as the single biggest platform of change in the new internet economy.
The energy in [Bengaluru] feels like the Valley and Flipkart with a footprint of millions is at the forefront. It is the opportunity to create the biggest impact and made sense after the amazing journey at Google.
Flipkart raised more than $1.5 billion from investors last year alone, including a whopping $700 million round in late December, according to TechCrunch.
Spurred by an explosion of smartphone users on the subcontinent, India’s e-commerce market is projected to garner $22 billion in revenue over the next five years, an increase of sevenfold in comparison to current statistics.