Indian start-ups seem to have hit refresh. From focussing on profitability to taking more cognizance of compliance and corporate governance, a lot has been happening. However, this transition appears to have also sparked a churn among the top brass at some start-ups, as many executives have decided to put in their papers to either start their own businesses or join legacy firms.
According to a report shared by Longhouse Consulting, Indian e-commerce start-up Meesho and edtech major Byju’s have seen the highest number of exits by far, followed by Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola. Unicorn start-ups such as Unacademy and Swiggy, which claimed to have hit the profitability benchmark this year, also witnessed some senior-level exits. Dale Vaz, former Chief Technology Officer, left Swiggy to launch his wealth tech start-up, Aaritya.
In the first half of this year, more than 20 senior executives have bid adieu to start-up unicorns.
Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho enables small businesses to sell their products online. It has raised several rounds of investments from the likes of SoftBank. But as the company grappled with the funding winter in 2023, top executives such as Prateek Agarwal (Vice President and GM of Monetisation), Shikhar Saxena (Group Product Manager), Mayur Borsaikia (Associate Director), Anupam Yash Vardhan (Group Product Manager) and Sruthi Sivakumar (Vice President of Design) have left the company to either start their own companies or join other start-ups, like in the case of Sivakumar, who has joined retail investment firm Wint Wealth.
Another start-up where senior-level exits have been much talked about is Byju’s. Indeed, 2023 has been a tumultuous year for the company, to say the least. The company was left with a lot to absorb after its auditor and three directors from its board resigned in the span of a month. These high-level exits implied that the company was in deep trouble owing to alleged corporate governance gaps.
Ananya Tripathi, CEO of WhiteHat Jr. (a company acquired by Byju’s in 2020), tendered her resignation in August after serving at the company for over a year. Tripathi is a McKinsey & Company and Myntra alumnus who was brought on board in April last year.
Cherian Thomas, another top executive at the company, quit to take over as the CEO of US-based mobile applications developer Impending Inc. Thomas served as the Senior Vice President of International Business at Byju’s, concurrently taking on the position of CEO at Osmo in January 2022.
Apart from Tripathi and Cherian, Byju’s Chief Business Officer Prathyusha Agarwal, Byju’s Tuition Centres Business Head Himanshu Bajaj, and the Business Head for Class 4 to 10 Mukut Deepak also quit the company.
Clearly, the churn in the start-up space is unlikely to end anytime soon.
@bhavyakaushal2