Gaurav Gupta, a co-founder, and head of supply of the online food delivery start-up Zomato has quit the company, confirms CEO Deepinder Goyal in a blog post. Zomato made its initial public offering in July at a final offer price of Rs. 76. Listed on 23 July at an opening price of Rs. 116, a premium of 52.63, its current price (on the afternoon of 14 September 2021), on the BSE is Rs. 114.10
“I am taking a new turn in my life and will be starting a new chapter, taking a lot from this defining chapter of my life – the last six years at Zomato. We have a great team now to take Zomato forward, and it’s time for me to take an alternate path in my journey. I am very emotional as I write this and don’t think any words can do justice to how I am feeling right now,” Gupta said in a company-wide email he sent earlier today.
Zomato’s CEO Goyal responded, saying, “Thank you, GG, for everything you have helped Zomato achieve over the last few years. We have seen Zomato through great as well as terrible times together and brought it here today. There’s so much of our journey still ahead of us, and I am thankful that you are hanging your boots at a point where we have a great team and leadership to carry us forward.”
Pankaj Chaddah, another co-founder of the company then known as Foodiebay, along with Goyal, resigned in 2018. Gupta, joined the company in 2015 as its business head and was its chief operating officer in 2019 when Zomato named him as a co-founder. He was the company’s primary communicator in its IPO and Rs 9,375 listing.
Gurugram-based Zomato said last week it is shutting down its grocery delivery service on 17 September. The 15-minute grocery business was set up as a pilot project in July. The company is also shutting down its dietary supplements business begun in March this year. The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns encouraged Zomato to establish its online food delivery business and try various online delivery experiments. It is, however, yet to be seen if its online food service will develop profitably when the pandemic becomes endemic. Nevertheless, many investors see that other opportunities can perhaps leverage the fundamental technology and brand as they arise.
