Online grocery firm Zepto announces leadership elevation as it eyes IPO

Zepto, online grocery company, announced key leadership elevations as it eyes for a public listing in the next two to three years. The company in a statement also said that it has multiplied its business by 4x in the past 12 months and has also made several dark stores profitable.

Vinay Dhanani, COO, Zepto now takes the role of President- supply chain and category. “With 15 years of supply chain experience in companies like Flipkart and ITC, Vinay Dhanani joined Zepto as its COO. Through his detail-oriented and disciplined approach, he led the Operations and Supply Chain team to achieve unprecedented milestones in unit economics and customer experience,” said the statement.

The company further added that, “Now, Vinay is adding the charter of Category Excellence to his role - integrating the buy-side and sell-side category teams under his leadership.”

Taking up the baton from Dhanani as the new Chief Operating Officer is Vikas Sharma. He will now be directly leading operations end-to-end, from the backend distribution centres to the last-mile, and the supply planning in between. Sharma will continue reporting into Dhanani.

Finally, Viral Jhaveri has been made chief growth officer and has been given an expanded mandate of leading customer acquisition, retention, and brand end-to-end.

Jhaveri is taking up this mandate from Amritansu Nanda, who will be moving on and leaving the company. The company statement said he is taking a career break to focus on his family and health.

Aadit Palicha, Co-founder and CEO, Zepto, said in a statement, “Through best-in-class execution over the past 12 months, Zepto has multiplied its business by 4X and turned dozens of dark stores fully profitable. Vinay, Viral, and Vikas have been instrumental in delivering this exceptional performance, which is why these elevations are truly well-deserved. With a leadership team as strong as the one we have today, I am confident that we will build Zepto into a generational public company within 2-3 years.”

This comes at a time when the startup ecosystem has been severely impacted due to funding winter. Zepto had raised $200 million last year at a valuation of $900 million.

In an earlier interview to Business Standard Palicha claimed that profitability is a function of execution, and the level of depth a company can build on its supply chain. “I think the model (quick commerce) itself is challenging. It requires best in the class operational discipline. If you have that, it ends up becoming a very profitable model. And we are seeing that in our mature dark stores,” he added.