Apoorv Kalra

Who they are

Apoorv Kalra is Head of Auto Business at ACKO — former CPO at Junglee Games, where he led product through Flutter Entertainment's forced exit from India's real-money gaming market.

Person

Apoorv Kalra did a B Tech in Computer Engineering at NIT Karnataka, then an MBA in Finance, Economics & Marketing from IIM Calcutta — the classic Indian engineering-to-management track, but he used it to go deep into product and growth rather than consulting. He started as a Software Development Engineer, moved through a Senior Consultant stint at Capgemini, then spent two years in corporate strategy at Altisource Asset Management before pivoting to consumer internet at Myntra, where he ran growth for three and a half years. Swiggy was his scaling chapter: he joined as AVP Strategy (Head of Growth & Revenue) in January 2019, moved to AVP Product for the RnG vertical, then topped out as VP Product & Business owning B2C product, revenue, growth, and food delivery categories. In June 2023 he became CPO at Junglee Games — arriving just as Flutter Entertainment was beginning to feel regulatory pressure in India — and held the role for three years through a forced pivot away from real-money gaming. He joined ACKO in February 2026 when the company was in pre-IPO mode, strengthening its leadership bench. He posts actively on LinkedIn around product strategy, growth frameworks, AI in gaming, and startup coaching, and participates in HYROX fitness events. The through-line is consumer internet at scale: growth, monetisation, and product ownership at each of India's defining consumer platforms.

Company

Junglee Games is mid-restructure. In August 2025 its parent Flutter Entertainment announced a full withdrawal from India's real-money gaming market — triggered by new laws prohibiting real-money games — and took a $556 million non-cash impairment charge in Q3 2025. Kapil Rathee, who had been with the company since 2015 and became co-founder in 2023, was elevated to CEO in 2025 to lead the next phase, focused on free-to-play social gaming. The company still claims 150 million registered users and is actively hiring senior technical and programme roles as of May 2026. Flutter is redeploying Junglee's talent and technology across its APAC markets rather than walking away from the investment entirely. Leadership departures are visible — Bharat Bhatia, who scaled the business to over 100 million installs, announced his exit in August 2026 after eight years.

Market

Junglee Games built its business in India's skill-based online gaming sector, a market that has been reshaped by government prohibition of real-money games, forcing a pivot to free-to-play social formats. In the social and casual gaming space it now competes with the likes of Zynga, Tripledot, and Jam City. Flutter Entertainment's APAC strategy gives Junglee a larger platform to redeploy its tech, but the domestic tailwind that built the user base is gone.

Network

Apoorv's ACKO network includes Kunal Kapur, who leads the Health Business at ACKO and is a peer business head, and Satheesh KV, ACKO's Chief People Officer, who was involved in the leadership hiring wave ahead of the company's IPO preparations. No former colleagues from Junglee, Swiggy, or Myntra surface as named connections in the available claims.

How they likely show up

  • Career pattern of AVP → VP → CPO within single companies (Swiggy, then Junglee) → earns trust by delivering before asking for more scope; likely plays a long internal game.
  • Moved from corporate strategy at Altisource into growth at Myntra → values owning outcomes over advising on them; probably impatient with analysis that doesn't attach to a number.
  • CPO at Junglee Games through a regulatory crisis and forced product pivot → has managed teams through bad news; unlikely to be rattled by ambiguity or sudden market shifts.
  • Active LinkedIn poster across product strategy, growth frameworks, AI in gaming, and startup coaching → comfortable being a visible voice, likely responds well to being asked for a strong opinion.
  • Possibly — medium tenure shape across roles suggests he moves when the next problem is bigger, not just when the comp is better.

Conversation tips

  • → Ask about the Junglee pivot specifically — he ran product through Flutter's India exit; that's a rare operational story and he'll have a real view on what you do when the market disappears.
  • → He posts on growth frameworks and startup coaching, so questions about frameworks land better than open-ended 'what do you think about X' questions — come with a specific hypothesis to stress-test.
  • → He's moved from gaming (Junglee) into insurance (ACKO Auto) — a sharp context switch; acknowledge that directly rather than assuming the product playbook transfers cleanly.
  • → HYROX is a specific, competitive fitness format — if you share any endurance or fitness interest, it's a genuine opener, not small talk.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on the Flutter India exit — he was CPO at Junglee Games when Flutter took a $556 million impairment charge and pulled out of real-money gaming in August 2025; ask what it's like to steer product strategy when the regulatory rug gets pulled.
  • He's moved from gaming CPO to leading ACKO's Auto business in February 2026 — one of the sharper career pivots in Indian consumer tech right now; that transition is a natural and specific opening.
  • He posts on AI in gaming as a content theme — Junglee deployed AI-powered customer support that cut response times by 70% in mid-2025; ask whether those bets translated into things he's now thinking about in insurtech.

Discovery questions

  1. When the real-money gaming ban hit, how did you prioritise which parts of the product roadmap were worth preserving versus scrapping entirely for the free-to-play pivot?
  2. You've run growth and product at Myntra, Swiggy, and Junglee — three very different demand structures. What does 'growth' mean differently at a gaming platform versus a food delivery or e-commerce one?
  3. Coming into ACKO's Auto business from gaming: where do you think the product intuition transfers cleanly, and where has insurance forced you to genuinely relearn?

Avoid

Don't treat the Junglee exit as just a negative — Flutter is explicitly redeploying the talent and technology globally, and he joined ACKO immediately after, so frame it as a transition, not a failure.

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Sources

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Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on August 16, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →