Foodtech unicorn Zomato, which is gearing to go public in 2021, has made changes to its leadership team, elevating Akshant Goyal as chief financial officer (CFO), as it continues to give its employees exits through secondary share sale transactions.
Akriti Chopra, who was earlier CFO and led fundraising will now be responsible for people development for the organisation, co-founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal has told employees. A Zomato spokesperson confirmed the development of leadership changes.
Goyal, the newly appointed CFO, who was earlier heading corporate development for the company, has been with Zomato for the last four years. Prior to joining Zomato, he co-founded and served as the CFO of PinCap, a fintech firm that helped SMEs secure short term loans, before which he had a seven-year-long stint at Kotak Bank as an investment banker.
While Chopra, who was appointed as Zomato’s CFO in November last year, has built the company’s in-house legal, governance, risk and compliance teams, during her 9-year stint with the food-tech major. During her stint at Zomato, Chopra also was a part of the global growth and international operations teams.
Zomato is expected to have another secondary share sale transaction, where its co-founder Pankaj Chaddah, who holds a 1.5% stake in the company, along with two dozen existing and former employees are expected to sell their stocks, news portal Entrackr reported on Thursday.
In an email to employees, in September, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said that the company’s ex-employees sold almost $30 million ( ₹225 crore) worth of shares to investors, making 4x premium to what those shares were allotted to them back in the day.
These shares are expected to be bought by existing investors, as well as new entrants like Tiger Global Management, Kora Investments and others, which are looking to invest further before Zomato’s IPO.
Zomato is also expected to raise a final round of investments, with the participation of existing investors, in the coming months, before the IPO.
In a bid to bolster its cash reserves, the Gurugram-based company has been on a fundraising spree, over the past months, cornering a little more than $270 million in investments, alone this year, from key investors – Tiger Global Management; Temasek, through MacRitchie Investments, Ant Financial and others.
The Gurugram-based company currently holds a valuation of $3.3 billion, as per its last funding round from Kora Investments, in October, which infused close to $52 million in the startup.
This funding will be used as a ‘war chest’ by the company for future acquisitions, and to fight any possible price-wars. The company is looking at possible acquisitions in the space of logistics, according to an individual, quoted above.
Unlike competitor Swiggy, Zomato scaled down its offerings around grocery and hyperlocal, over the past few months, in a bid to focus on its core business and recover completely from the impact of covid-19.
Since the lockdown, Zomato has delivered close to 92 million orders since lockdown and expects the food-delivery sector to grow at 15% month-on-month, moving forward.
Earlier this month, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal tweeted that food delivery volumes have reached pre-covid peaks, as volumes continue to climb with the advent of Indian Premier League (IPL) and the festive season.
