Swiggy sees two VP-level exits within a month

While the two VPs have already departed, Swiggy has ropped in Aparna Giridhar from Unilever as VP of Marketing, it has internally promoted Sreeram Suresh.

Food and grocery delivery platform Swiggy has seen two high-level exits in a month. Ashish Lingamneni, vice president (VP), head of brand and product marketing, left the company earlier last week after nearly six years, sources told Moneycontrol on May 4.

His exit came within days of Nishad Kenkre, VP, head of revenue and growth, Instamart, leaving the Bengaluru-based foodtech giant after a four-year stint. Instamart is the company’s grocery delivery platform.

Both roles have already been filled, sources told Moneycontrol. While Aparna Giridhar replaced Lingamneni, Swiggy promoted Sreeram Suresh to take over Kenkre’s position, they said.

A Swiggy spokesperson did not respond to Moneycontrol’s email on the exits.

Giridhar joined Swiggy earlier this week after 11 years at Unilever, while Suresh has been with the company for over five-and-a-half years, their LinkedIn profiles say.

Both Kenkre and Lingamneni are understood to be taking a career break, for now.

While Lingamneni, in his farewell email, said he wanted to drink beer by the beach, Kenkre wanted to recharge and reflect.

“After four amazing years at Swiggy…I have decided to step away from my current role to take a break, recharge and reflect,” Kenkre wrote on LinkedIn.

“In my second innings at Swiggy, I had the privilege of leading revenue and growth for one of the fastest growing businesses in Indian consumer tech - Swiggy Instamart…Lord knows it was not always an easy one, but good things in life don't come easy,” the post said.

Before his Instamart assignment, Kenkre was the chief of staff at Swiggy.

These developments coincide with changes at the top in the management team. Chief technology officer (CTO) Dale Vaz is set to leave this month to start up on his own.

About a month ago, Karthik Gurumurthy, head of Instamart and SVP at Swiggy, also said he would be going on a sabbatical after a “journey (that) has been arduous with lot of compromises on physical and mental wellbeing… “I plan…to come back afresh and build something (0-1), something which I have loved,” he said in a LinkedIn post.

Gurumurthy is understood to return to lead Swiggy Maxx, the company's new e-commerce-like offering.

The changes are similar to the churn at rival Zomato, though the scale was much bigger and involved more senior executives.

The Gurugram-based foodtech company’s CTO Gunjan Patidar resigned in January in the fourth top-level exit at Zomato in a span of just two months.

Before Patidar, co-founder Mohit Gupta had quit. He resigned after Rahul Ganjoo, the head of new initiatives and former food delivery chief, put in his papers. His exit was close on the heels of that of Siddharth Jhawar, head of Zomato’s inter-city food delivery service in November.

Two months earlier, in September 2022, Nitin Savara, Zomato’s deputy chief financial officer, left the company.