Movers And Shakers Of The Week [February 8 – 13]

While layoffs were a common practice among the startups last year, a new shady behaviour unfolds as 15-20 employees were forcibly asked to leave without their knowledge, prior intimidation or notice. 

The situation comes to light after 15-20 employees working in the ground operations for Ninjacart contacted Inc42, alleging unethical practices and a toxic culture. 

At least 15 employees allege they were forcibly asked to leave their roles at Ninjacart without a notice period. Some employees working in the Ninjacart ground operations team alleged that the company placed resignation requests without their consent. Apart from the terminations, employees also alleged that Ninjacart management failed to keep toxic work conditions in check.

Read the complete story here. 

Let us take a look at some of the other important movers and shares in the Indian startup ecosystem this week: 

POSist Appoints Ajay Singh As Chief Growth Officer

Delhi NCR-based restaurant management platform POSist appointed Ajay Singh as chief growth officer. In this new role, Singh will be leading the company’s global expansion and work alongside its international teams in the Middle East, America and the UK. 

Singh comes with over three decades of experience, working across diverse sectors including retail, food services, consumer goods and real estate. Prior to this, he was the CEO of Pizza Hut and Costa Coffee India, with Devyani International. Before this, he has worked with companies like METRO Cash & Carry, DAMAC Properties and others. 

Vernacular.ai Onboards New CRO & VP For Expansion 

Bengaluru-based vernacular tech platform Vernacular.ai recently announced that it has onboarded Gangadhar Kodandaram as the chief revenue officer and Ankit Jain as vice president for product management. With this transition, both Kodandaram and Jain will be spearheading global expansion starting with the South East Asian markets. 

Prior to joining the company, Kodandaram was with Microsoft India, healing the healthcare vertical and also ran government business for south India in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and digital transformation. Jain, on the other hand, was the cofounder and CEO of Y Combinator-backed AI startup SprintAI.