Livspace Leadership Exodus 2026: CBO Lalit Mittal Quits After Cofounder Exit

When a unicorn loses its CFO, most observers note it. When it then loses its cofounder-CEO, they start asking questions. When it then loses its Chief Business Officer for India — before anyone was even told — they start counting.

Livspace, India’s KKR-backed home interiors unicorn, is navigating a nine-month leadership reset that has now claimed three of its most senior executives. The latest exit: CBO-India Lalit Mittal, who resigned over a month ago — confirmed only this week by a company spokesperson. His departure follows cofounder and India CEO Saurabh Jain’s exit days earlier, and CFO Saurabh Agarwal’s departure in June 2025, succeeded by Myntra’s former CFO Abhishek Gupta.

All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of 1,000 layoffs — 12% of the workforce — over the past six months, as Livspace restructures around an ‘AI-native agentic organisation’ model. The company says it is not a reactive cost-cut. That claim is now carrying a heavier burden of proof.

The Exit Sequence: A Timeline of Departures

The CBO-India role sits at the top of Livspace’s commercial operations for its largest market. Lalit Mittal’s quiet exit — over a month before the public confirmation — is the kind of departure that does not make the news at the time precisely because it is not meant to. The fact that it is emerging only now, days after Saurabh Jain’s more visible exit, suggests the company is managing an outflow of leadership that it would prefer to package as an orderly transition.

The sequence matters. CFOs, cofounders, and CBOs do not all leave within the same nine-month window by coincidence. Either this is a planned generational reset — every one of them replaced or succeeded by someone new — or the internal culture has shifted in ways that made their continued presence difficult. The company has not offered a detailed explanation for any of the three departures beyond stock phrases.

Who Walked Out the Door

“This isn’t a reactive cost-cut. It’s a strategic reallocation of resources.”
— Livspace spokesperson — responding to questions about the 1,000 layoffs, February 2026

The AI Restructuring: What Livspace Is Actually Doing

Livspace’s pivot to AI is not entirely performance. The company has spent six months deploying AI agents across its core operating functions — and in some areas, the results are measurably significant:

The design and sales automation claims are credible and aligning with broader industry trends. But the home interiors sector has a hard ceiling on automation: the physical execution layer cannot be replaced by algorithms. The carpenter installing a modular kitchen, the supervisor coordinating civil works, the designer doing a site visit — these remain human-dependent. The AI transformation is real at the top of the funnel. Whether it can sustain quality at the bottom of the funnel — where the product is actually delivered — is the operational question Livspace must answer.

Employees who were laid off have reported being called into meetings with no prior notice and handed pink slips. The company promised severance packages. In the current climate — with Sam Altman publicly naming ‘AI washing’ as a corporate practice just days before these stories emerged — Livspace’s narrative is walking a tightrope between genuine transformation and convenient cost justification.

Livspace’s Financial Picture: Improving, But Under Pressure

The financial trajectory is genuinely positive. Revenue grew 23% in FY25 to Rs 1,460 crore. Net losses narrowed from Rs 416 crore to Rs 242 crore. Adjusted EBITDA losses fell by 47%. This is not a company in financial freefall. It is a company managing a deliberate and difficult transition from a high-headcount service model to a technology-enabled one.

But the funding gap is conspicuous. Livspace raised $180 million at unicorn valuation in February 2022 — nearly four years ago. $527 million total raised across 15 rounds from 65 investors. The absence of a fresh round for four years, combined with three C-suite exits and 1,000 layoffs, creates a narrative that investors and analysts will interrogate rigorously before any IPO or Series G round is viable.

The Competitive Landscape

Key Risks to Watch

Who Should Be Watching

What’s Next

The immediate question is succession. Livspace has publicly confirmed Mittal’s exit but named no replacement for the CBO-India role. The CBO slot oversees the commercial heartbeat of the company’s largest business. Leaving it vacant — or filling it quietly — will be the next signal about how seriously Livspace is managing this transition versus how reactively.

The longer arc is about the IPO window. Abhishek Gupta — Myntra’s former CFO — stepping into the CFO role is not a random hire. Myntra is a consumer internet company that has navigated hyper-growth, profitability pressure, and Flipkart Group dynamics. His profile is precisely the CFO blueprint that investment banks want to see when they start drafting IPO paperwork.

If Livspace can hold its revenue trajectory, continue narrowing losses, stabilise leadership, and make a credible case for AI-native operations — it has a fundable story for either a pre-IPO round or a direct listing. The current nine-month storm is either the last turbulence before clear skies, or a sign of structural problems at an unlisted unicorn with limited liquidity and four-year-old institutional pricing.

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