Swiggy hires Sairam Krishnamurthy as first COO for Instamart amid rising competition

Krishnamurthy is the latest executive that Swiggy has roped in from Amazon.

Swiggy has appointed Sairam Krishnamurthy as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Instamart, the company’s quick commerce division. Krishnamurthy, a retail and FMCG veteran, has been roped in at a time when Swiggy is facing increased competition from Zomato-owned Blinkit Zepto and others in the rapid delivery space.

Prior to joining IPO-bound Swiggy, Krishnamurthy spent over three-and-a-half years at More Retail, an Amazon company (through a joint venture with Samara Capital) that runs a chain of offline retail stores. He also spent several years at Unilever and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) where he led several brands and grew their presence. Swiggy will look to tap into his expertise of expanding product portfolio and widening assortment at a time when quick commerce companies want to push up average order values (AOVs) by selling beyond groceries.

Krishnamurthy will oversee Swiggy Instamart’s operating units, which include dark store and infrastructure operations, city growth and expansion and report to Phani Kishan, co-founder and head of Instamart at Swiggy.

"I am thrilled to join team Swiggy in a business that I believe represents the future of grocery retail. As an ardent consumer turned operator, I am energised by the opportunity to drive profitable growth for Swiggy Instamart. I look forward to collaborating with the team to unlock the immense potential of the business and lead it into the next phase of growth," Krishnamurthy, who has over 18 years of experience, said.

The Swiggy and Amazon connection
Krishnamurthy is the latest executive that Swiggy has 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 tapping into Amazon's talent is understandable 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.