An officer working in British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone became a board member of Zepto
Zepto has appointed Akhil Gupta, Vice President of Bharti Airtel’s parent company Bharti Enterprises, as an independent director on its board.
Currently, Zepto’s co-founders Adit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, Avra’s founder Anu Hariharan and Nexus Venture Partners’ co-founder and managing director Suvir Sujan are among the startup’s board members.
Akhil’s journey
Akhil Gupta has led the formation of various partnerships for Bharti with major international operators like British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone.
Apart from this, he has also included major investors like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Foundation Endowment, AIF and Sequoia apart from several other private equity funds.
Akhil has also led the successful public listings of Bharti Airtel (2002), Bharti Infratel (2012) and Airtel Africa (2019). Meanwhile, he is expected to bring his experience to Zepto as the firm prepares for its IPO later this year.
Unicorns are compelling
Zepto’s hiring is not limited to strengthening its board. The company has given responsibility to several executives in senior roles in the last few years.
In July last year, the company promoted Senior Vice President and head of loyalty program Pass Devendra Meel to Chief Business Officer. Earlier in January, former Senior Vice President Nikhil Mittal was promoted to the post of Chief Technology Officer and Divesh Sahni to the post of Chief Growth Officer.
However, during this time the company has also seen many people exiting from the top management. Last year, Chief Marketing Officer Amritanshu Nanda along with Chief Business Officer and Chief Growth Officer Viral Jhaveri and Vice President of Growth and Retention Manik Oberoi left the company.
Apart from this, former Zepto Senior Vice President (Finance) Ashish Shah resigned in December 2023. After this, he took over the role of Chief Financial Officer at DealShare.
