IPO-bound Swiggy has appointed Sairam Krishnamurthy as senior vice-president and chief operating officer of its quick commerce vertical Swiggy Instamart.
In this new role, he will oversee Swiggy Instamart’s operating units, which include dark store operations, infrastructure operations, city growth and expansion.
With over 18 years of experience in leadership roles in the retail and FMCG sectors, he joins Swiggy Instamart as its first COO. Prior to joining Swiggy, Krishnamurthy spent over three-and-a-half years at More Retail, an Amazon company (through a joint venture with Samara Capital) that runs a chain of offline retail stores. He also spent several years at Unilever and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) where he led several brands and grew their presence.
“Sai’s extensive experience and impressive track record as an operator, leading cross-functional teams in a high-growth environment make him an ideal fit for Swiggy Instamart at this juncture of our journey. We welcome him to the team and look forward to his contributions in taking Swiggy Instamart to the next level of growth,” said Girish Menon, CHRO at Swiggy.
Krishnamurthy’s appointment follows a series of senior hires at Swiggy Instamart. In the past few months, the quick commerce platform has strengthened its leadership team with the addition of Himavant Srikrishna Kurnala as Senior Vice-President of Product and Business, Aakash Bhotika as Vice-President - Technical Advisor, Mayank Rajvaidya as Vice-President of Fruits & Vegetables, and Manu Sasidharan as Associate Vice-President of the FMCG Category for Instamart.
The IPO-bound company competes with Zomato’s Blinkit and Zepto in the quick commerce space and has been slowly losing market-share to both.
Swiggy’s shareholders approved its IPO, which includes ₹3,750 crore ($450 million)-worth fresh shares while the offer for sale (OFS) consists of ₹6,664 crore ($800 million). Its backers including Prosus, SoftBank, DST Global, Accel Partners, and Elevation Capital among others are likely to sell their holdings in the OFS.