In what could be a signal to the direction that Zomato’s core business will take up, the company has promoted Mohit Gupta — currently the head of its food delivery business — as a co-founder of the company. Including Gupta, Zomato will now have four co-founders. These include the original co founder Deepinder Goyal, COO Gaurav Gupta, Gunjan Patidar and now Mohit Gupta.
The move is intriguing, considering the times that we are in. Coronavirus has blunted out India’s hospitality sector, so much so that the country would see close to 30% of pre-COVID 19 restaurants/eateries shutting shop. That has a direct impact on the likes of Zomato and Swiggy, both of whom have tweaked offerings to include services such as liquor and grocery delivery to sustain business. Gupta’s elevation as co-founder could infuse some confidence into the sector.
In an email sent across to company employees, Deepinder Goyal said, “While the foundation of Zomato was built before Mohit Gupta joined us, he has been instrumental in significantly strengthening it over the last two years…When I introduced the Founders Programme a little over a year ago, I outlined a few qualities that all founders must exhibit. These qualities include trustworthiness, commitment and resilience among other things. MG checks all these boxes and more.”
Mohit Gupta’s rise to the co-founder position has been pretty rapid. He only joined the company in 2018, coming in from MakeMyTrip where he was the COO. Goyal further added, “(Mohit Gupta) has extremely high levels of ownership – so much so that he has taken a 100% salary cut twice in the last two years to help the organisation wade through some hard times”/
Pankaj Chaddhah, who co-founded the company along with Goyal, decided to quit after a decade long stint. He has since then founded yet another startup, called Mindhouse.
