MAM
Vivek Gambhir and Kevin Aluwi join Lightspeed as venture partners
Mumbai: Lightspeed expands its senior team in India and Southeast Asia by welcoming Vivek Gambhir and Kevin Aluwi as venture partners, reaffirming the firm’s long term commitment to the start-up ecosystem in the region.
Vivek Gambhir is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience as CEO, chief strategy officer, and board member in Consumer Goods (FMCG), consumer technology, management consulting. In India and the US until recently Vivek was the CEO at boAt and has transitioned into a board member role. Previously, Vivek was CEO and managing director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) where he spearheaded the transformation and global expansion of the company to become a leading emerging markets home & personal care company. He also was the chief strategy officer of the group responsible for formulating group vision, defining portfolio strategy, mentoring company CEO’s and enhancing strategic capability of group companies. Prior to Godrej, Vivek was a founding member of Bain & Company’s consulting operations in India. He also serves on the boards of Metropolis Healthcare, Honasa Consumer (Mama Earth) and Samast Technologies (Magic Pin).
Vivek specialises in partnering closely with founding teams to scale up their businesses and accelerate value creation and will lend his rich leadership experience to the next generation of builders in the Lightspeed portfolio.
Kevin Aluwi was most recently co-founder and CEO at Gojek, one of the Southeast Asia region’s start-ups and Indonesia’s leading ride-hailing, food-delivery, and payments app which went public on the Indonesian stock exchange after merging with local e-commerce giant Tokopedia. His expertise and leadership in the Southeast Asian market are well illustrated through his journey and he is passionate about using his time at Lightspeed to help other founders as a thought partner on all parts of company building, particularly in product, marketing, and scaling organizations. As a fervent believer in the power of technology to advance humanity, he’s excited to work in service to visionary and tenacious founders (believing both in equal measure are necessary) from around the world.
Lightspeed partner Bejul Somaia shared ” At Lightspeed, the strength of our team and partnerships acts as a force multiplier for the founders we serve. We are thrilled to welcome Vivek and Kevin into our growing teams in India and SEA. In their roles as Venture Partners they will be collaborating with founders, shaping their journeys, and contributing to the growth and development of our portfolio companies in the region”
Lightspeed continues to focus on foundational sectors such as enterprise software, FinTech, consumer and commerce while leaning into emerging trends across AI, Climate and space-tech recognising the immense potential for growth in the region. The firm has partnered with more than 100 companies in India and Southeast Asia, including OYO, Udaan, Sharechat, Acceldata, Innovaccer, PocketFM, Darwinbox, Razorpay, Aspire and Youtrip, among others.
Lightspeed’s global platform supports bold founders across sectors, in any geography, and at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey. In addition, the portfolio companies are supported by a platform team of experts across legal, talent, marketing, finance and corporate development.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
