Swiggy's Karthik Gurumurthy to exit and start his own venture

In March, Gurumurthy, who built Swiggy Instamart, had gone on a sabbatical, but returned in May to head Swiggy Mall.

Karthik Gurumurthy, Senior Vice-President (SVP) at Swiggy, is set to exit the food delivery giant and start his own venture, people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

In March, Gurumurthy, who built Swiggy Instamart, had gone on a sabbatical but returned in May to head Swiggy Mall. Swiggy Mall was earlier called Swiggy Maxx and is a hyperlocal online shopping destination.

The latest venture will not be very different from what Swiggy does but will be in the offline space. “Think of Karthik’s latest venture as an Aldi and what it does in Germany. That low-cost physical store model will be replicated here,” one of the persons said.

“His expertise in food and food and vegetables (F&V) is understandable, he has entirely built Swiggy Instamart so he understands the space. Any venture fund will be willing to fund him,” the person added.

Over the past months, Gurumurthy has met with VC firms like Matrix and Accel to fund his venture, Convenio, the person added. Gurumurthy may change his firm’s name later.

Gurumurthy, Swiggy, Matrix and Accel offered no comments for the story.

The latest developments also align with what Gurumurthy had said earlier in a LinkedIn post. I plan to "come back afresh and build something (0-1), something which I have loved... Live back and play back that memories of 2020 and 2021,” he had said earlier.

Swiggy has, however, roped in Dipak Krishnamani to head Swiggy Mall, an indication that it is ready for Gurumurthy’s departure, Moneycontrol has learnt.

Krishnamani joined Swiggy last month after nearly seven years at Amazon. Before joining Amazon, Krishnamani spent nine years at Marico.

Gurumurthy joins a growing list of top-level exits at Swiggy. The company's chief technology officer (CTO) Dale Vaz also quit to start his own venture. Even Vaz raised capital from Accel, with participation from others, Moneycontrol reported earlier.

In May, Ashish Lingamneni, vice president (VP), head of brand and product marketing, also left the company after nearly six years. His exit came days after Nishad Kenkre, VP, head of revenue and growth, Instamart also departed. 

Similarly, Anuj Rathi, SVP of revenue and growth at Swiggy also quit to join fintech company Jupiter.