IPO-bound Zepto appoints Airtel’s Akhil Gupta to firm board

Akhil Gupta.
| Picture Credit score: The Hindu

Forward of its IPO, fast commerce unicorn Zepto has appointed Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Akhil Gupta as an impartial director to its board.

At present, 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 fast commerce agency.

A supply aware about the event stated Zepto has appointed Airtel’s Akhil Gupta to the corporate board.

Bharti Enterprises is the guardian firm of Bharti Airtel.

Notably, Mr. Gupta has spearheaded the profitable public listings of Bharti Airtel (2002), Bharti Infratel (2012) and Airtel Africa (2019), and is anticipated to lend his experience to Zepto because the agency appears to make its inventory market debut later this 12 months.

In his position as vice chairman, Mr. Gupta has led the formation of varied partnerships for Bharti, with main worldwide operators like British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone, along with induction of main monetary buyers like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Basis Endowment, AIF and Sequoia, amongst many different non-public 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 12 months, the fast commerce main promoted Devendra Meel, senior vice chairman and head of its loyalty programme Move, to chief enterprise officer a 12 months after he joined the startup. Earlier than that, in January, former senior vice presidents Nikhil Mittal and Divesh Sawhney had been promoted to chief expertise officer and chief development officer, respectively.

IPO-bound Zepto, which just lately flipped its base again to India from Singapore, has been on a fundraising spree.

The corporate has raised $1.35 billion in a span of 5 months. The Bengaluru-based firm raised $665 million in June 2024 from Glade Brook Capital, StepStone Group, Nexus Enterprise Companions and others after which went on to shut a $340 million spherical in August 2024 from Basic Catalyst and others.

Zepto then adopted it up with $350 million fundraising from Motilal Oswal, Ranjan Pai’s Claypond Capital and different Indian buyers.