Flipkart grapples with sagging employee morale as Snapdeal, Meesho, Groww power ahead with IPOs

New business data points to the fact that For years, former and current employees of Flipkart pinned their hopes on the Walmart-owned e-commerce major’s eventual stock-exchange debut, which could create a significant liquidity event, unlocking wealth worth millions of dollars.

But with a stock-exchange debut remaining elusive for now, many employees at the Walmart-owned e-commerce major are increasingly looking for greater clarity on when they may be able to realise the value of their equity, people familiar with the developments told Moneycontrol.

The uncertainty comes even as several senior executives have departed the firm in recent months. Among the latest exits are Manikandan Rengaswamy, vice president – IT, and Nishitkumar Mehta, vice president – Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS).

Their departures add to a series of senior-level exits at Flipkart. Moneycontrol has, during the past few weeks, noted at least eight exits at the VP and SVP marks, as the firm keeps evaluate its plans and timeline for a potential IPO.

In response to Moneycontrol’s queries Walmart and Flipkart spokespeople stated: “We recognize that many employees have built meaningful equity in the firm and understand the questions around how that value may be realized over time.”

For many employees, the offering extends beyond whether Flipkart lists this year or next year. It is additionally around the contrast between the value they anticipated to realise from their equity over time and the liquidity that employees at other internet firms have received following public listings.

“An employee at Flipkart has a fair share of their salary payout locked in ESOPs – but with no visibility on the liquidity of those ESOPs, it means nothing. Especially when they’re seeing their peers at rival firms get listed and provide immense liquidity to their staffers,” one of the people cited above stated.

The comparison is becoming harder to ignore.

Employees who joined Flipkart years ago and accumulated stock options have watched firms that were once viewed as peers — or, in some cases, newbies trailing behind Flipkart — reach the public markets before them. Meesho, founded in 2015, listed in 2025, while Swiggy went public in 2024.

Meesho's journey is particularly telling for some Flipkart employees. The firm, founded roughly eight years after Flipkart, made its debut on the bourses in 2025 — giving its employees and early market participants a liquidity event while Flipkart's public-market ambitions stay uncertain.

Then there is Snapdeal.

Founded in 2010, Snapdeal was once among Flipkart's most closely watched rivals and, for much of the past decade, was widely noted as having fallen behind the country's larger e-commerce players. But the firm is now working towards its own public-market debut, putting it within touching distance of an IPO.

For some Flipkart employees, the prospect of Snapdeal reaching the public markets before Flipkart has become particularly difficult to digest. A firm that was once written off by large parts of the industry is now potentially ahead of Flipkart in reaching an outcome that employees have been waiting years for: a public stock-exchange debut and a defined route to liquidity.

“If Snapdeal has additionally gone public before Flipkart, then the larger team, especially at Walmart, needs to be asking themselves tougher questions, especially around what the future of Flipkart looks like,” a second person cited above stated.

The comparisons extend beyond e-commerce. Groww, founded by former Flipkart employees, has additionally raced towards the public markets, with the Bengaluru-based wealth tech firm building significant value for its market participants and early employees along the way.

For Flipkart employees, the irony is difficult to miss: some of the people who once worked inside Flipkart in middle management roles have gone on to build firms where employees are able to unlock wealth held in stock options.

But perhaps the most visible reminder of what employees can miss by waiting too long has come from Flipkart's former neighbour in Bengaluru: Swiggy.

The online food and grocery delivery firm, which operated out of the same startup ecosystem as Flipkart for years, listed in 2024. Its IPO gave employees a chance to monetise what had previously been paper wealth, with at least 500 employees becoming millionaires and more than 5,000 employees receiving payouts totalling over $1 billion, as noted by Moneycontrol earlier.

For Flipkart employees, the Swiggy IPO has as a result become more than another startup stock-exchange debut. It is a real-world example of what years of holding ESOPs can eventually translate into — and a reminder of what they are still waiting for.

The result is a growing sense among some Flipkart employees that they have spent years waiting for a liquidity event that keeps moving further away.

For startup employees, ESOPs are often more than a line item in their compensation package. They are the promise that staying through the difficult years of building a firm will eventually translate into meaningful wealth.

That promise becomes harder to sustain when employees see former colleagues and peers elsewhere cashing out.

Moneycontrol had earlier noted that new-age rivals such as Swiggy, Zepto and Blinkit are tapping into Flipkart’s talent pool and offering employees handsome pay packages, including lucrative ESOP liquidity plans.

Several people told Moneycontrol that the lack of communication around the timing of its potential IPO has become a source of frustration.

While an IPO is only one of several milestones for a firm of Flipkart’s size, employees who have spent years at the firm are increasingly asking what the next meaningful wealth-creation event looks like.

“People are not necessarily expecting an IPO tomorrow. They want to at least know what the plan is,” one person stated.

The uncertainty is additionally beginning to influence career decisions.

A senior employee who recently left the Flipkart group is set to join a larger, listed conglomerate, with the decision fuelled in large part by the fact that the new employer’s stock compensation offers a more clearly defined path to liquidity, according to people familiar with the matter.

For employees who have spent five, six or more years at Flipkart, the calculation is becoming particularly personal.

Another senior employee who is strongly contemplating an exit from Flipkart is leaving after more than six years with the firm. The person has told several colleagues that despite spending years at one of India’s largest technology firms, he has not been able to accumulate enough wealth to buy a house of his own.

“Our mindset has been to create value for all stakeholders, but at the end, who looks after us?” the person was reportedly noted questioning several times.

In the meantime, peers of this employee who joined other startups at a similar stage have already generated substantial wealth through stock-market listings and secondary transactions, the person stated.

That comparison, between staying and leaving, and between paper wealth and realised wealth, is increasingly becoming part of conversations inside Flipkart, according to six industry stakeholders Moneycontrol has spoken with.

“An IPO stays an active part of our strategic roadmap, and we will move forward when the timing is right,” they further noted, without providing a timeline for the IPO.

The IPO that employees have been waiting for

Flipkart has long been anticipated to eventually tap public markets. Walmart, which acquired a majority stake in the firm in 2018, has additionally indicated that an IPO could eventually be an option, although the timing has remained uncertain.

Moneycontrol had previously noted that Flipkart had engaged with bankers for a private funding round, likely to set a valuation benchmark, but those talks yielded no results. Moneycontrol later noted that Walmart had asked Flipkart to prioritise profitability before pursuing public-market stock-exchange debut goals.

Flipkart has made significant progress towards building a business that can potentially stand on its own in the public markets. Its marketplace stays one of India's largest, while newer businesses, including Flipkart Minutes, have become increasingly important to its expansion strategy.

But for employees, business expansion alone does not answer the question of when their stock options will become valuable in real terms.

This is particularly relevant given how dramatically the startup wealth equation has changed during the past few years.

During the funding boom, employees across India's internet firms were encouraged to think of ESOPs as an important part of their overall compensation. Secondary sales and IPOs then gave employees at several firms an opportunity to monetise those holdings.

To be sure, Flipkart has facilitated several ESOP buybacks and put wealth in the hands of its employees. Including the latest ESOP liquidity exercise in July this year, Flipkart has generated over $1.5 billion in value for employees, Moneycontrol had earlier noted when Flipkart’s valuation touched $38 billion.

Since 2017, the firm has announced several ESOP buyback events. While 2026 is the smallest one yet, the $700 million payout bonanza in 2023 was the largest-ever for the Bengaluru-based firm.

That stated, that one mega payday that several staffers have awaited is yet to arrive.

That creates an unusual situation for a firm of Flipkart’s scale: employees can work for years at one of India's most valuable private technology firms while still having little certainty around when, or at what valuation, they will be able to monetise their equity.

The concern for Flipkart is that senior-level exits can have a multiplier effect.

Senior executives typically hold substantial institutional knowledge and influence over large teams. Their departure can prompt younger employees and other senior managers to reassess their own options, particularly when those leaving are joining firms that offer a clearer wealth-creation opportunity.

Several employees have begun comparing their compensation and career trajectories with friends and former colleagues at Meesho, Swiggy, Groww and other internet firms, people familiar with the matter stated.

The frustration additionally comes at a time when Flipkart is undergoing a significant strategic transition. The firm has been investing heavily in quick commerce through Flipkart Minutes, expanding its network of dark stores and attempting to close the gap with faster-growing rivals such as Blinkit and Zepto.

For employees, that means the firm is asking them to stay committed to another major phase of expansion, even as some have already spent years waiting for the payoff from the previous one.

There is additionally a generational element to the frustration. Employees who joined Flipkart in the early years may have accepted softer salaries or taken on the risks associated with working for a private startup because of the prospect of substantial equity upside.

For Flipkart, the challenge may as a result be less around convincing employees around the firm’s future and more around convincing them that they will personally participate in that future.