Zomato’s senior executive, Gaurav Gupta, known to have spearheaded the recent initial public offering (IPO) and led discussions with investors and the media, resigned on September 14.
“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 6 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 told executives at Zomato in an internal email to employees, as per the company’s blog.
“I could not have asked for more – I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had and thankful to all the folks around me for helping me become a much better person,” he added.
The food delivery company raised $1.3 billion in its initial public offering, according to Money Control. Following the news of his exit, the Zomato stock initially hit a new high of ₹152.75 yesterday and then fell by 10 percent to ₹136.20, before closing the day at ₹144.10 apiece.
“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,” said Zomato founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal in reply to Gupta’s email.
Gupta’s exit comes days after Zomato pulled the plug on its grocery delivery and Nutraceutical businesses. The company, on September 13, had scrapped plans to deliver groceries for the second time in two years citing infrastructure gaps in the highly competitive online grocery market. Due to rising government regulations surrounding private label norms for marketplace businesses, the company decided to shut down the Nutraceuticals business that sold dietary fibres, antioxidants and herbal and natural foods.
The company also recently announced that it will shut down its Singapore and United Kingdom-based subsidiaries. Zomato announced the closure of businesses in a stock exchange filing on September 1. The company, in early August, decided to divest its stake in step-down subsidiary NexTable, Inc. for $1,00,000.
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Gupta joined Zomato in 2015 as the supply head and launched Zomato’s table reservation business across key regions including India, Australia and the UAE. He then moved on to be the sales head for global advertising and was also responsible for growing the ad revenue business across India, West Asia and Europe.
Following that he was appointed the president of large enterprise accounts and became the COO in 2018. In 2019, Zomato named him co-founder and he became the company’s spokesperson for interactions during its IPO listing. According to the Economic Times’ sources, Gupta is now expected to plan out his next professional endeavour, which could be his own venture or working for another company.
Zomato reported a net loss of ₹356 crores at the end of the April-June quarter, compared to a net loss of ₹99.8 crores during the previous financial year. The food technology company’s revenue rose to ₹916 crores during the quarter under review, compared to ₹283.5 crores reported in the same quarter during the previous year.
