Zomato COO Gaurav Gupta steps down to focus on firm's nutrition business

The nutrition business can be a large value driver for Zomato at a time when the company is preparing for a public listing next year and is focusing on profitability

Food delivery giant Zomato’s chief operating officer Gaurav Gupta is stepping down from his current role. Gupta who was also elevated to the position of co-founder at Zomato last year would now be focusing on launching the company’s nutrition business.

“My journey at Zomato for the last 5 years has been one of the best rides one can ask for. In some sense, it seems like a lifetime and in some sense, it feels like we are just getting started,” said Gupta in an email to the employees. “I will be vacating the COO position at Zomato. I was anyway not doing this role, and it will be great for all of us if we find someone better than me to do this role at Zomato.”

An alumnus of IIT-Delhi, Gupta said he would be focusing on launching the company nutrition business. “This business can potentially be a large value driver for Zomato in the future,” said Gupta. “I am very excited about the new capabilities we are building here and will share more details at the right time.”

Gupta had led multiple businesses at Zomato such as advertising sales, table reservations across India, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Europe. He had also led the launch of the online food ordering business across key international markets. 

He led the company successful subscription businesses, Zomato Gold. He had been instrumental in scaling Hyperpure to serve the largely undersupplied restaurant market in India with fresh produce.

Prior to joining Zomato, he served as a senior principal with A.T. Kearney in the consumer industries and retail space. There, he led large-scale, transformational engagements and built expertise across multiple areas in this space. These include new business launch, category performance improvement, sales enhancement, profitability improvement and business due diligence.

The development of Gupta stepping down to focus on the company’s new business comes at a time when the Gurugram-based firm is preparing a public listing in the first half of 2021 and focusing on profitability. Zomato has also been on a fundraising spree over the past few months which would help it diversify into newer business segments.

Last week, the company was set to raise around $146 million as part of its Series J funding round from several investors, including Mirae Asset, Steadview Capital, Luxor Capital Group, Lugard Road Capital and ASP India, according to the documents filed by Zomato, which were sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated Zomato’s journey to profitability. The firm’s food delivery volumes have touched pre-Covid-19 peaks. Zomato founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal recently said a number of cities are now at over 120 per cent of pre-Covid peaks. He said since the end of March, Zomato had delivered a total of 92 million orders.

Goyal, in an email to employees, recently said the firm was planning an IPO next year. He said the firm had about $250 million cash in the bank, the highest in its history. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Temasek, Baillie Gifford and Ant Financial have participated in its current round, which, he estimates, will take its cash in the bank to $600 million.

HSBC Global Research recently valued Zomato at $5 billion, a major increase from its earlier valuation of $3.5 billion. Analysts said Zomato may target a valuation of about $7 billion for its listing.

In July, Zomato said its revenue for the financial year 2020 (FY20) grew 105 per cent to $394 million, while loss rose about 6 per cent to $293 million.