Swiggy taps fresh talent for Instamart as it gears up for public listing

IPO-bound Swiggy on Monday announced key appointments across its executive suite including the appointment of Himavant Srikrishna Kurnala as SVP and Product Head for its quick commerce offering, Instamart.

Kurnala was previously the Chief Product Officer for JioMart at Reliance Retail and has an expansive career spanning nearly two decades at Amazon and Microsoft. He will be responsible for bolstering Instamart’s product strategy and customer experience as it faces stiff competition from established players like Zomato’s Blinkit and Zepto, as well as new entrants.

Swiggy also appointed Mayank Rajvaidya as VP of Fruits and Vegetables. Rajvaidya was earlier leading Amazon’s Consumables Private Brands in the country and contributed to the launch and expansion of Amazon Pantry to over 300 cities.

Swiggy also appointed Manu Sasidharan at Instamart as Associate Vice President of the FMCG Category, tapping on his more than a decade-long experience with ecommerce ventures like Flipkart and Cleartrip.

Additionally, the company announced the newly joined AVP of Business Development Kumar Rahul’s move to Swiggy‘s recent acquisition in the logistics space, Lynk.

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These appointments come as Swiggy tries to match and outpace its peers in its quick commerce operations as public listing inches closer. "Businesses across Swiggy are growing positively, continually adding new categories and use cases for our consumers,” said Girish Menon, Head of HR at Swiggy.

Last week, Swiggy announced its fifth Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) liquidity programme of stocks worth up to $65 million (Rs 543.5 crore) granted under its ESOP. The liquidity event is a part of a secondary transaction valuing the company in the range of $9 billion to $10 billion, according to sources.

Sriharsha Majety-led Swiggy is also focusing on profitability, just like its peer Zomato, and has even increased its platform fees by 20% to Rs 6 in some high traction markets including the National Capital Region, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.