Zepto’s meat business CEO Chandan Rungta quits, latest in a string of recent exits

Zepto

Chandan Rungta, the chief executive officer of the meat business quick commerce major at Zepto, has stepped down less than a year into the job, sources told Moneycontrol. Zepto confirmed that Rungta, who joined the firm in December, had quit.

What is happening at Zepto’s meat business?

Over the past weeks, Zepto’s meat business has expanded to maintain its pace of growth. The rapid delivery startup initially relied more on its private label, Relish, to grow its meat business. However, it brought back Licious, a dominant meat brand, as part of its assortment to continue the growth momentum.

“Zepto got feedback that the premium consumers liked the Licious brand and the mass premium consumers enjoyed Zepto’s own brand Relish. The company had to then re-list Licious and also offer Relish to cater to both cohorts of users,” one of the sources cited above said.

How big is Relish?

Relish is clocking around Rs 40-50 crore in monthly sales, which translates to an annualised revenue run rate of Rs 480-600 crore, sources said.

Who else has left Zepto?

Zepto has seen several of its employees quit in the recent months.

Chandresh Dedhia, VP and head of information technology, quit in under a year after joining in December 2024, sources said.

ALSO READ: Around 300 employees impacted at Zepto amid cost efficiency drive at the quick commerce company 

Apoorv Pandey, senior vice president, strategy, at Zepto, who had joined from rival Eternal (formerly Zomato), has quit the company, sources told Moneycontrol. Pandey left soon after Shashank Shekhar Sharma, CXO- Zepto Cafe, stepped down.

Sharma, who earlier worked at Chai Point, played a key role in scaling Zepto Cafe along with Pandey. While Pandey joined in September 2024, Sharma was an early employee and was with Zepto for over three years before he quit in October.

Yash Heda, senior director at Zepto, is now working on Zepto Cafe alongside Vinay Dhanani, president, to lead the vertical, sources said.

Have early employees also quit Zepto?

Sharma isn’t the only early employee to have quit Zepto recently. Other early employees, largely mid-management roles, including some at levels below vice president (VP), have also quit Zepto.

Senior director Anant Rastogi, business head Suraj Sipani, Vijay Bandhiya, director of strategy, Roshan Shaikh, chief expansion officer, have all quit the quick commerce firm in recent months, sources told Moneycontrol.

While Rastogi, Shaikh and Sipani each spent over four years at Zepto, Bandhiya joined in 2022, close to when Zepto started operations and was scaling from a small quick commerce player to the big three rapid delivery company. Their exits also coincided with their ESOP vesting cycle.