Food delivery giant Swiggy's COO Vivek Sunder decides to move on

Sunder played a pivotal role in expanding the geographical footprint of the marketplace business taking Swiggy beyond more than 500 cities.

Vivek Sunder, 46, the chief operating officer of food delivery giant Swiggy has quit the company. Sunder will be pursuing personal and professional interests outside the organisation.

The development comes at a time when Japan’s SoftBank is planning to invest up to $450 million in Bengaluru-based Swiggy at a $5.5 billion valuation.

“I am writing to let you know that Vivek Sunder, our COO, has decided to pursue interests outside of Swiggy and will transition out of the organization by October,” said Swiggy co-founder and chief executive officer Sriharsha Majety, in a letter, addressed to the employees and which has been seen by Business Standard.

“I will be directly overseeing the Marketplace business with immediate effect. We have been discussing this for a while now, and over the course of the past few weeks, have been planning the way forward as well,” said Majety.

An alumnus of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology and IIM-Calcutta, Sunder had been leading Swiggy’s business operations as COO since July 2018. 

Sunder has played a very significant role in the growth story of Swiggy - as a brand, service and as an organization, since joining the firm 3 years ago. He played a pivotal role in expanding the geographical footprint of the marketplace business taking Swiggy beyond more than 500 cities and later rallied the organization to drive a step-change in the unit economics of the marketplace business. 

“He also played a key role in holding the fort in Swiggy’s on-ground operations during the Covid lockdown phases, and among his other notable contributions,” said Majety.

He said Sunder’s thought leadership on strategic moves on the supply and operations sides has given the company a solid foundation.

On the organizational side, Sunder has played a key role in infusing large organisation thinking in the company with a constant focus on scalability. He has also played a pivotal role in laying the seeds of practising deep consumer empathy in the way Swiggy looks at its products and offerings. He leveraged it to come up with simple moves that can drive big gains in consumer perception as opposed to technically complex solutions. 

“He has also represented the company across media, industry forums, and campuses as a Swiggy ambassador,” said Majety. “Vivek (Sunder) will be missed for his zeal, for always pushing the boundary on consumer thinking and the functional mastery he brought to the table. I thank him for his contributions and wish him all the very best in all his future endeavours.”

Prior to Swiggy, he led P&G’s business in East Africa based out of Nairobi. He worked with Procter and Gamble for 20 years in various capacities including Commercial Director in India, Regional Director for a pan Asia team (based in Singapore), Category Leader in the United Kingdom and Team Leader in Thailand.

In Swiggy, he has led the effort to scale the company across cities. He also led the restructure for faster and better decisions so that the company continues to operate as a nimble startup while it scales.