Pepperfry co-founder and chief executive Ambareesh Murty, 51, passed away in Leh on Monday night following a cardiac arrest.
Ashish Shah, co-founder of the unicorn online furniture store, shared the news in a tweet on Tuesday morning.
Murty, an engineer and alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, started his career with chocolate maker Cadbury in June 1996 before moving to ICICI Prudential as VP Marketing and Customer Service. Later, Murty joined eBay India as country manager for the Philippines, Malaysia, and India.
In June 2011, he and Shah launched Pepperfry, and went on to raise $5 million in December from Norwest Venture Partners.
Pepperfry raised its last round of funding in November 2021, when General Electric, Mukesh Sharma Family Trust and others infused $10 million, according to data from Tracxn. It was valued at about $460 million at the time.