 "swiggy, swiggy AI")
Top-level executive exits continue in the startup world. The latest departure from Swiggy's top-tier leadership saw Karan Arora, the Vice President and Head of Supply Chain Management (SCM), bidding farewell to the IPO-bound Swiggy after a tenure of three and a half years.
According to reports, Bhupesh Pangti, who has been with the company since 2021, will take over Arora's responsibilities as VP of supply chain.
Meanwhile, Arora will join forces with Karthik Gurumurthy, the former head of Swiggy Instamart, who left in November last year to establish Convenio. Arora will serve as the co-founder of Convenio, an offline retail startup that mirrors Swiggy's business model.
Who else has quit Swiggy?
Arora's exit adds to a trend of high-level departures at Swiggy over the past year. It began in April 2023 when the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Dale Vaz, departed to start his own venture. Subsequently, in May, Ashish Lingamneni, VP and Head of Brand and Product Marketing, followed suit. Lingamneni's exit coincided with the departure of Nishad Kenkre, VP and Head of Revenue and Growth at Instamart, a few weeks earlier.
In addition to Arora, other notable executives such as Anuj Rathi, Sidharth Satpathy, and Karthik Gurumurthy have also left Swiggy. While the motivations behind some of these moves remain undisclosed, several executives are exiting to start their own entrepreneurial journeys.
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How are Swiggy's finances?
Meanwhile, according to reports, US-based asset management company Baron Capital has raised the fair value of its stake in Swiggy by almost 17 per cent to $87.2 million as of December 2023, up from $74.7 million in the preceding quarter. This adjustment values Swiggy at $12.1 billion, representing a 13 per cent increase from its valuation of $10.7 billion during its last fundraising round in 2022.
Similarly, Invesco, another investor in Swiggy, recently adjusted its valuation to $8.5 billion as of October 31, compared to $7.8 billion in July. Both Baron Capital and Invesco participated in Swiggy's last fundraising round of $700 million in January 2022. Baron Capital had entered that round as a new investor, contributing $76.7 million in exchange for a 1.9 per cent stake.
These developments coincide with Swiggy's preparations for its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) later in the year, which aims to raise over $1 billion. According to reports, the company generated revenue of Rs 5,476 crore from operations in the first nine months of FY24, reflecting a 25-30 per cent year-on-year growth during the fiscal period.
Swiggy underwent a restructuring initiative in January this year, reducing its workforce by approximately 350-400 employees as part of its cost-cutting measures.
