Flipkart hires ex-Twitter executive Tarun Jain to help build its online ad platform

Flipkart has appointed former Twitter executive Tarun Jain to the position of Head of Product of its online advertising division as the online e-commerce marketplace looks at alternate income streams to boost its revenues.

At Flipkart, Jain will be responsible for driving business strategy, product vision, product roadmap, execution, partnerships and customer adoption. He will report directly to Ravi Garikipati, an entrepreneur-in-residence at Flipkart who is helping the company build out its online ad business.

"Tarun comes with an accomplished track record of building highly successful products and platforms in some of the leadings tech companies in the world. He possesses deep understanding of the digital advertising solutions and we believe that his leadership will bring invaluable insights and contribute to the growth of ads group at Flipkart," said Ravi Garikipati, entrepreneur-in-residence at Flipkart, in a statement.

Prior to joining Flipkart, Jain worked with Twitter in San Francisco where he led the product strategy for advertising and commerce products for the social network. He also served a stint with Google, building products like AdWords Express, Dynamic Ads and products around offers and online shopping.

As investors put pressure on Flipkart to turn profitable, advertising has emerged as a strong focus area for the company, with group CEO Sachin Bansal personally heading the charge. The appointment of Jain is the latest in a list of top-level hires the company has made in the past few months to improve its technology prowess.