Quick commerce major Zepto has announced the elevation of Devendra Meel, Senior Vice-President of Strategy, to the chief business officer’s role.
In his new role, Meel will spearhead category management and foster brand partnerships, ensuring optimal assortment, pricing, availability, and growth of all core categories on the platform.
“Having a front-row seat in a company poised to redefine Internet India is the opportunity of a lifetime. I am deeply committed to this mission and will bring all my energy and dedication to it,” said Devendra Meel.
He takes over from Viral Jhaveri, who left Zepto in March. Jhaveri had been at the firm since July 2021 and was part of its founding team, holding roles such as chief business officer and chief growth officer.
Divesh Sawhney has been appointed as chief growth officer after Jhaveri’s exit. On the other hand, Ashish Shah, who was Senior Vice-President of Finance at Zepto, recently joined DealShare as chief financial officer.
This comes at a time Zepto has raised $665-million funding round at a $3.6 billion valuation. The company is looking to double its count of dark stores or warehouses to 700 by the end of 2024-25, entering ten new cities, including Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur.
Aadit Palicha, Co-founder and CEO, Zepto, said, “Devendra has had an incredible run at Zepto. After joining us a year ago, he played a key role in scaling our advertising business to hundreds of crores in revenue and, more importantly, built out Zepto Pass end-to-end: from an idea to 5M+ subscribers today. Devendra has executed like an entrepreneur and treated Pass like his baby, working tirelessly 6-7 days a week with the Pass team to make the economics sustainable, and brought the whole company together to get Pass launched in record time.”
Prior to Zepto, Devendra, an IIM-Bangalore graduate, led special initiatives at Zomato and Jio.