Farfetch owner Coupang hires Microsoft AI specialist

Farfetch owner Coupang has announced the appointment of Asha Sharma, an experienced Microsoft AI specialist, who will be joining the South Korean retail giant's board of directors, as revealed in a press release.

Sharma, who had served as corporate vice president and AI specialist at Microsoft, has held various leadership roles in addition to this, including as VP of product at technology company Meta, where she helped build and scale Facebook Messenger to billions of users, and as operating officer at US retail company Instacart. Sharma started her career in marketing at Microsoft.

“Asha's deep product and practical AI expertise align with our mission to drive innovations that wow our customers,” said Bom Kim, founder and CEO of Coupang. “We look forward to working with her as we build more breakthrough experiences for customers around the world.”

Sharma's appointment comes after Coupang acquired British luxury e-tailer Farfetch in January. Thanks to the deal, Farfetch received 500 million dollars in capital.

This investment was intended to "secure the future of the company for the time being". After the takeover, Farfetch was taken private and continued as a private company.

The takeover caused setbacks at Coupang. The South Korean company saw turnover rise to a record high, but ended up with the net result in the red due to the acquisition of Farfetch, according to last month's quarterly results.