IPO-bound Swiggy to rope in former Flipkart exec Amitesh Jha as Instamart head

Foodtech giant Swiggy is in advanced stage of discussions to appoint Amitesh Jha, former senior vice president at Flipkart, as head of Instamart, the company’s quick commerce business. Phani Kishan, co-founder and current head of Swiggy Instamart, will transition to a larger role within the company as it prepares to go public later this year, Moneycontrol has learnt.

Kishan, who has been with Swiggy for nearly a decade and began heading Instamart in April 2023, has led several teams at the Bengaluru-based company over the years. He became the head of Instamart after Karthik Gurumurthy exited.

Swiggy picking Jha for the role is understandable as he has scaled various divisions at Flipkart over the past 13 years. He was most recently leading Category and Marketplace for the Walmart-owned company which made him win Sriharsha Majety’s confidence.

A Swiggy spokesperson did not immediately reply to Moneycontrol’s queries. News portal The Arc first reported the development.

The developments come at a time when quick commerce wars are intensifying. While Zomato’s Blinkit is currently the market leader with a market share of 40-45 percent, Swiggy Instamart occupies the number two spot with around 20-25 percent share. As per several analysts, companies like Zepto (which enjoys 15-20 percent market share) are not too far behind. Tata’s BB Now and Flipkart Minutes are the other giants that are ramping up operations to capitalise on the quick commerce boom.

Also, quick commerce companies are now widening assortment and going beyond traditional groceries into electronics, mobile phones, etc., categories that Flipkart is dominant in. Over the past months, Swiggy has been roping in former Amazon and Flipkart executives and strengthening its top deck.

Swiggy appointed Sairam Krishnamurthy as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Instamart, who is a retail and FMCG veteran.

He was the latest executive that Swiggy roped in from Amazon. It has hired leaders like Himavant Srikrishna Kurnala (SVP at Swiggy), Satheesh Raman (VP, Swiggy), Dipak Krishnamani (VP, Swiggy) and several others, across functions, from the e-commerce giant as product offerings grow.

The food delivery giant is tapping into Amazon's talent as players in the space want to change the way Indian consumers shop online. In the past, Zepto's CEO Aadit Palicha and Blinkit's chief Albinder Dhindsa have both said that quick commerce companies are eating into the share of companies like Amazon and Flipkart as an increasing number of consumers tweak their shopping patterns.