Zomato rejig: Rakesh Ranjan to step down as food delivery chief, CEO Deepinder Goyal to run operations

Zomato group CEO Deepinder Goyal

Rakesh Ranjan, chief executive officer of Zomato's food delivery business, will be stepping down from his current position, people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

Zomato founder and group CEO Deepinder Goyal will lead food delivery operations for the coming months, these sources said.

To be sure, Rakesh Ranjan will continue to remain in the firm and won't be leaving. A source further said this was part of a leadership reshuffle that the company undertakes every couple of years.

A spokesperson for Zomato did not immediately reply to Moneycontrol's queries. Hours after Moneycontrol exclsuively reported the development, Eternal (formerly Zomato) notified the stock exchanges.

"At Eternal Group, internal reshuffling of the leadership team is considered a standard practice as part of the Company's ongoing efforts to optimize organizational effectiveness," the filing said.

Ranjan was made the CEO in June 2023 and has spent nearly eight years with the Gurugram-based company. While Zomato was already the market leader when Ranjan took over, it built on its lead under his leadership over the past months.

The food delivery space however continues to evolve as Swiggy and Zomato see their market share see-sawing from time to time and a clear winner is yet to emerge.

While a leadership rejig is a regular exercise at Zomato, the management change comes at a time when the wider food delivery industry is witnessing a slowdown.

"Currently we are going through a broad-based slowdown in demand which started during the second half of November," Rakesh Ranjan, former CEO, food ordering and delivery business, Zomato had said in the company's shareholder letter on January 20 while announcing quarterly results.

ALSO READ: MC Interview: Food delivery will have to change, 10-minute deliveries can be a gamechanger, says Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal

Zomato, which is the leader in the food delivery space, is not the only one witnessing a slowdown. Its rival, Swiggy, has also seen a slowdown in line with peers.

Amid a broder slowdown and some loss of market share, Zomato has now made two major leadership changes in its food delivery business. Deepinder Goyal has replaced Rakesh Ranjan as the unit's CEO and earlier this month chief operating officer (food delivery) Rinshul Chandra also stepped down from his position.

The shares of Eternal (formerly known as Zomato) were trading up 0.74 percent at Rs 239.2 apiece on the BSE on April 23.

Note to readers: The story was updated to include Eternal's stock exchange filing which was made hours after Moneycontrol first reported the development.