Zomato makes three significant hires and promotes Rakesh Ranjan to CEO of meal delivery.
Food and grocery delivery platform has made three key appointments elevating Rakesh Ranjan, and Rinshul Chandra as chief executive officer and chief operating officer of food ordering and delivery vertical, respectively, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The company has also appointed Rishi Arora as the CEO of its business-to-business vertical Hyperpure.
The appointments to Zomato’s food delivery and Hyperpure verticals have come at a time when the company has reported positive adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) excluding quick commerce for the first time at Rs 28 crore during January-March.
Zomato on Friday reported a 70% year-on-year jump in its operational revenue for the March-quarter to Rs 2,056 crore, and its net loss narrowed to Rs 187.6 crore in the quarter, compared to Rs 359.7 crore in the year-ago period.
While Ranjan was business head of new businesses at Zomato, Chandra was vice president of product at the company. Arora, meanwhile, has been with Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, for almost nine years and held the position of senior vice president of operations before being elevated to cofounder of Blinkit in July last year.
“Rakesh, Rinshul and Rishi have been with Zomato/Blinkit for more than five years across various roles. We believe that a change of leadership every now and then with capable people at the helm brings new perspectives to the business enabling it to evolve faster. Such leadership changes are also great for people development, and we are confident that our people strategy will set us up for success even decades from now,” the company said in the regulatory filing.
These appointments come in the backdrop of a series of senior level exits at the company, including cofounders like Mohit Gupta and Gunjan Patidar, who was also its chief technology officer. Senior executives like head of new initiatives Rahul Ganjoo and Siddharth Jhawar, who was the head of Zomato’s intercity delivery, also quit late last year.
In February, Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal had said he along with the company’s chief financial officer Akshant Goyal had taken over some of the responsibilities of those who had resigned, with the remaining assignments being handed over to other team members.
“I’m doing a bunch of things, Akshant (Goyal) has taken up a couple of things…we also have a strong bench. So, with a combination of these three, we’re good for now. So far, we can fit it into the 12-14 hours a day…it’s perfectly fine but we’re constantly on a lookout for talent,” Goyal had said.
“…we don’t have the need to fill these two spots (of Gupta and Patidar). Being in ‘continuous lookout for great talent’ is an attack tactic, not a defence tactic,” Goyal had said, on whether the company was looking to fill these vacancies with outside talent.
