On Wednesday, IPO-bound food delivery service provider Zomato has promoted its former chief financial officer (CFO) Akriti Chopra to its Chief People Officer and co-founder of the business, the company informed employees via an email.
Chopra took the position of people development at Zomato last October after the company appointed Akshant Goyal as their new CFO.
It is not for the first time that Zomato is elevating an employee to the rank of a founder of the company. A year ago, Mohit Gupta, the CEO of its food delivery business, was elevated to the position of co-founder. Earlier, Gaurav Gupta, the chief operating officer of the company also had been to the position of co-founder.
Akriti Chopra, who was CFO till October, as per her LinkedIn profile, left the position soon after the company became active in initializing its initial public offering (IPO) plans.
“Akriti has been here (at Zomato) for almost a decade. She has an undying commitment to Zomato and our well-being. She has been one of the strongest pillars of support for Zomato, as we weathered multiple ups and downs through these years. She has mostly been behind the scenes all these years, working hard and building an impeccable finance team…Congratulations Akriti for now officially being a founder at Zomato,” said Zomato co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal, in an internal memo to its employees.
In April, Zomato filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator. The company is said to offer equity shares up to Rs 8,250 crore (nearly $1.1 billion). Out of this, Rs 7,500 crore shares will be a fresh issue, while Rs 750 crore will comprise an offer for sale for its existing investor, Info Edge.
During its pre-IPO primary fundraising, Zomato raised $250 million at a valuation of $5.4 billion, from investors namely Kora Management, Tiger Global, Fidelity, Dragoneer, and Bow Wave. After this, Info Edge, one of Zomato’s earliest investors, remained with its effective stake in Zomato at 18.4 per cent.