Ahead of its IPO, fast commerce unicorn Zepto has appointed Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Gupta as an impartial director to its board.
Currently, Zepto co-founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, alongside Avra founder Anu Hariharan, and Nexus Venture Partners co-founder and Managing Director Suvir Sujan, are among the many different board members of the fast commerce agency.
A supply privy to the event stated Zepto has appointed Airtel’s Akhil Gupta to the company board.
Bharti Enterprises is the mother or father company of Bharti Airtel.
Notably, Mr. Gupta has spearheaded the profitable public listings of Bharti Airtel (2002), Bharti Infratel (2012) and Airtel Africa (2019), and is predicted to lend his experience to Zepto because the agency appears to be like to make its inventory market debut later this yr.
In his position as vice chairman, Mr. Gupta has led the formation of assorted partnerships for Bharti, with main worldwide operators like British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone, as well as to induction of main monetary buyers like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Foundation Endowment, AIF and Sequoia, amongst many different non-public fairness funds.
The supply famous that Zepto’s appointments haven’t been restricted to strengthening its board. The company has, over the previous couple of years, elevated a number of executives to senior positions.
In July final yr, the fast commerce main promoted Devendra Meel, senior vp and head of its loyalty programme Pass, to chief enterprise officer a yr after he joined the startup. Before that, in January, former senior vice presidents Nikhil Mittal and Divesh Sawhney had been promoted to chief know-how officer and chief development officer, respectively.
IPO-bound Zepto, which just lately flipped its base again to India from Singapore, has been on a fundraising spree.
The company has raised $1.35 billion in a span of 5 months. The Bengaluru-based company raised $665 million in June 2024 from Glade Brook Capital, StepStone Group, Nexus Venture Partners and others after which went on to shut a $340 million spherical in August 2024 from General Catalyst and others.
Zepto then adopted it up with $350 million fundraising from Motilal Oswal, Ranjan Pai’s Claypond Capital and different Indian buyers.
Published – April 12, 2025 11:06 pm IST
