Zomato co-founder Gaurav Gupta quits, to start “new chapter”

Gaurav Gupta, co-founder and head of supply at Zomato Ltd, has decided to leave the food delivery company after a six-year stint and barely two months after the firm’s initial public offering.

“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 six years at Zomato,” Gupta said in an internal email. He didn’t elaborate on his future plans.

Gupta had joined Zomato only in 2015, and so wasn’t really with the company when it began operations more than a decade ago. He was named chief operating officer in 2018 and then as a co-founder in 2019 for his contribution. 

Gupta was also in the limelight when Zomato floated its IPO in July this year. The IPO raised Rs 9,375 crore and catapulted the company into the list of India’s top 50 companies by market value.

Gupta, an engineering graduate from IIT-Delhi and also an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta, worked with AT Kearney for a decade before joining Zomato.

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal thanked Gupta for his contribution in taking the company forward. “We have seen Zomato through great as well as terrible times together, and brought it here today,” Goyal said. 

“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,” Goyal added.

Goyal’s exit comes at a time when Zomato has been consolidated its businesses after going public. The company has exited countries such as the US and UK to focus on its core markets. In India, it has also stopped grocery delivery and shut down the nutraceutical business that offered health and fitness products. However, it will retain a presence in the grocery delivery segment through its 10% stake in Grofers.