Arun Sirdeshmukh, CEO of Reliance Trends, the Apparel, Luggage and Accessories division of Reliance Retail, has quit the company to start his own fashion e-commerce startup, reports The Economic Times. Citing two senior executives who were aware of this development, the report mentions that Sirdeshmukh is currently in talks with venture capitalists Lightspeed and Helion for raising funding. Prior to his stint with Reliance Trends, where he served for five years as the company's CEO, Arun Sirdeshmukh was the Group Brand Manager of Madura Garments until 1998. He co-founded Indus League Clothing in 1999 and served as the company's marketing head. Future Group acquired Indus Clothing in 2005. The report indicates that Sirdeshmukh's startup will compete with Ambarish Murthy's e-commerce startup Pepperfry which recently raised $5 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Smile Interactive's Freecultr which raised $4 million from Sequoia Capital last year, suggesting that the startup will offer multiple fashion brands in an online retail format. It would be interesting to see how this startup will differentiate itself from its competitors to survive in the highly competitive e-commerce market. Earlier this year, Rohit Sharma, CEO (Digital) For Reliance Entertainment had also quit the company to start a children-focused e-commerce startup Wopshop.com which currently offers deals on toys and plans to expand into stationery, home entertainment and publishing.
