Forward of its IPO, fast commerce unicorn Zepto has appointed Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Gupta as an impartial director to its board.
At the moment, Zepto co-founders Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, alongside Avra founder Anu Hariharan, and Nexus Enterprise Companions co-founder and Managing Director Suvir Sujan, are among the many different board members of the short commerce agency.
A supply aware about the event mentioned Zepto has appointed Airtel’s Akhil Gupta to the corporate board.
Bharti Enterprises is the mother or father firm of Bharti Airtel.
Notably, 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 seems to make its inventory market debut later this yr.
In his function as vice chairman, Gupta has led the formation of assorted partnerships for Bharti, with main worldwide operators like British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone, along with induction of main monetary traders like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Basis Endowment, AIF and Sequoia, amongst many different personal fairness funds.
The supply famous that Zepto’s appointments haven’t been restricted to strengthening its board. The corporate has, over the previous couple of years, elevated a number of executives to senior positions.
In July final yr, the short commerce main promoted Devendra Meel, senior vp and head of its loyalty programme Cross, to chief enterprise officer a yr after he joined the startup. Earlier than that, in January, former senior vice presidents Nikhil Mittal and Divesh Sawhney have been promoted to chief expertise officer and chief progress officer, respectively.
IPO-bound Zepto, which lately flipped its base again to India from Singapore, has been on a fundraising spree.
The corporate has raised USD 1.35 billion in a span of 5 months. The Bengaluru-based firm raised USD 665 million in June 2024 from Glade Brook Capital, StepStone Group, Nexus Enterprise Companions and others after which went on to shut a USD 340 million spherical in August 2024 from Common Catalyst and others.
Zepto then adopted it up with USD 350 million fundraising from Motilal Oswal, Ranjan Pai’s Claypond Capital and different Indian traders.
