Food aggregator Swiggy strengthens top deck ahead of upcoming IPO

Swiggy has hired another senior executive from Flipkart, second in a fortnight, as the food delivery major reshuffles its top deck ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), expected sometime later this month.

The company on Wednesday said that it has roped in Dhruvish Thakkar as Assistant Vice President for revenue and growth at Swiggy Dineout. Thakkar was Senior Director, Head of Revenue and Marketing at Flipkart.

Before him, Flipkart’s former Senior Vice President and Head of Grocery Amitesh Jha was roped in by Swiggy. Jha has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Swiggy Instamart.

He replaced firm’s co-founder Phani Kishan, who will now assume a broader organisation-wide role overseeing Swiggy’s Central Growth unit.

 

Churn at Instamart  

Early last month, the company had appointed Sairam Krishnamurthy as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Instamart. His appointment followed a series of senior-level appointments at the quick commerce unit.

The company has recently brought in Himavant Srikrishna Kurnala as Senior Vice President of Product and Business, Aakash Bhotika as Vice President - Technical Advisor, Mayank Rajvaidya as Vice President of Fruits and Vegetables, and Manu Sasidharan as Associate Vice President of the FMCG Category for Instamart.

The exits

These recent appointments came on the back of a series of exits. Swiggy’s chief growth and marketing officer Ashwath Swaminathan recently left the firm.

Before him, Karthik Gurumurthy, the firm’s Senior Vice President had quit late last year to build his own venture.

Anuj Rathi, former Head of Revenue and Growth, quit in September 2023, while Swiggy’s former chief technology officer Dale Viz had also put in his papers in April last year.

The initial public offering   

This churn at Swiggy’s top deck comes ahead of its IPO, expected in the coming few weeks.

In April, Swiggy had confidentially filed its IPO papers for Rs 10,400 crore (approximately $1.25 billion). The food delivery giant is reportedly targeting a valuation of around $15 billion for its stock market debut.

This comes at a time when competition is intensifying in the rapidly growing quick commerce space. Players like Zepto, Blinkit and BB Now are rapidly expanding their operations, be it in terms of category expansion, scaling their dark store networks, or getting into newer cities. Moreover, e-commerce incumbents like Flipkart and Amazon have also jumped into the mix.

According to a report by HSBC Global, Instamart’s market share has fallen from 52 per cent in March 2022 to 32 per cent in January 2024.

At the same time, Blinkit emerged as the market leader with a 40 per cent share, while Zepto's market share has risen from 15 per cent in March 2022, to 22 per cent in January 2024.