Zomato has had an incredible run at the stock markets over the last year or so, but one of its most consequential executives has left the company.
Zomato’s Chief People Officer Akriti Gupta had resigned. Gupta had been elevated to the title of co-founder at Zomato in 2021. Interestingly, Akriti Gupta is also the wife of Blinkit founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa. Zomato had acquired Blinkit in 2022.
“Deepi (Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal), as discussed formally sending in my resignation effective today. It has been an incredibly enriching journey over the last 13 years. Thank you for everything. I’m always a call away 🙂 Wishing you and Eternal, the very best,” her email said.
Chopra has an incredible career since completing her B.Com from Lady Shri Ram College in 2008. She had worked with PwC still 2011, and had then joined Zomato in 2011 when it was still a fledgling startup. At Zomato, she rose quickly through the ranks, and even became the company’s Chief Financial Officer in 2019. In 2020, she became Zomato’s head of people development, and in 2021 was given the status of a “co-founder”. Since then, she’d been Zomato’s Chief People Officer.
But Akriti Chopra was also married to Blinkit founder Albinder Dhindsa. Albinder Dhindsa and Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal were batchmates at IIT Delhi. There had been some eyebrows raised about this relationship when Zomato had acquired Blinkit in 2022 — the deal would’ve put Chopra in an interesting spot, given she was the co-founder of the acquiring company, and the acquired company was run by her husband. But Zomato had said that there was nothing to hide. “The relationship between Albinder and Akriti/ I is public and already known – there was nothing to hide there. The board was aware of it and all parties, including Akriti herself, made sure that she was never involved in any discussions or decisions with respect to the transaction,” Goyal had said in 2022.
Chopra has now quit. It’s unclear what she plans to do next, but she’s done pretty well for herself — her stocks from a 13-year-old stint in Zomato must be worth a pretty penny, and her husband continues to lead Zomato’s fastest growing segment in Blinkit. But Zomato seems to have made a habit of having its co-founders quit — Goyal is the fifth co-founder to quit the company. Zomato’s original co-founder, Pankak Chaddah had quit in 2018, and three other of Zomato’s “appointed co-founders” in Gaurav Gupta, Mohit Gupta and Gunjan Patidar had also quit . Zomato had tried out this interesting tactic of anointing its senior executives with the “co-founder” title, but given the attrition in the role, it appears that this title alone doesn’t seem to doing enough to get them to stay.