Tata Digital CEO Tahilyani resigns after a year, joins Prudential

Tahilyani, who joined Tata Digital in February 2024, exits after restructuring leadership and growing the firm's financial offerings including a booming credit card base

Naveen Tahilyani, the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of Tata Digital, has stepped down over a year after joining the company. Tahilyani, who took over the reins in February 2024, was handpicked by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to turn around the company which has been lagging other ecommerce and quick commerce players.

 

Tahilyani has now joined Prudential plc, a British-domiciled multinational insurance and asset management company, where he will be the regional CEO for India, Africa, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, with responsibility for the health vertical, the company said in a press release.

 

Tahilyani, a Tata veteran, was previously the CEO of Tata AIA Life Insurance. Immediately after his appointment, Tahilyani announced a rejig and a focus to streamline the structure of leadership and make the firm nimble and business focussed.

 

Soon the total number of leaders reporting directly to Tahilyani came down to 20, from 35 who reported to the former CEO Pratik Lal. Tahilyani also focused on building the financial offering of the company, loyalty programme and improve customer stickiness. 

 

In the financial segment, Tahilyani’s strategy to attract customers worked, as its credit card offering crossed 1.5 million user bases in October 2024. This was up from 1.18 million card at the end of FY24 (March 31, 2024).

 

According to Tata Digital’s FY24 annual report its financial services has witnessed significant growth, with its co-branded credit card reaching 1.18 million cards. The company said that it is the fastest growing co-branded credit card in India.

 

Chandrasekaran in an email to employees on the sudden exit of Tahilyani said, “Over the past year Tata Digital (standalone) has delivered a strong performance across key metrics. Our commerce gross merchandise value has grown by 109 per cent and the financial services payments value have increased by over 60 per cent while continuing to improve profitability.”

 

The email has been seen by Business Standard.

 

He went on to add that the company has made progress in shaping effective business models and collaborating with our subsidiaries. “All of this has been achieved under the leadership of Naveen who has played a pivotal role in strengthening our foundation and setting the strategic direction,” said Chandrasekaran.

 

“I will be announcing, his successor in the next few days to enable a smooth transition over the coming weeks,” added Chandrasekaran.

 

While Tahilyani focused on streamlining the operations, Tata Neu is still unable to bring the power of the Tata group companies to the platform. In the recent times the financial offering had started to do well, it was only IHCL and Croma that have been well integrated into the Tata Neu platform. This integration is evident in Bigbasket’s foray into quick commerce and electronics goods.

 

In the recent time the company also saw some external hiring on senior level. These included Vinay Vaidya, who was appointed as the chief technology officer. He joined Tata Digital from Amazon. Satyam Mehra, chief strategy officer, who joined from Zomato and Jairaj Sathyanarayana, chief data and AI officer, who joined from Swiggy.

 

But in the past, the company has seen several exits. Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra quit the firm in 2022, many senior leaders have exited post that. In 2024, Pavan Podila, head of architecture and Samir Aksekar, chief information security officer exited.

 

Tata Digital saw its losses narrow for FY24 at ₹1,200.82 crore. Losses for FY23 came in at ₹1,370.09 crore, according to the FY24 Annual Report of Tata Sons. Revenue for FY24 almost doubled from ₹204.35 crore in FY23 to ₹420.51 crore.