Nishant Pitti Steps Down As EaseMyTrip CEO

Shortly after offloading 1.41% stake in online travel aggregator EaseMyTrip, cofounder Nishant Pitti has stepped down as chief executive officer of the company.

Pitti, along with his brothers, Rikant and Prashant Pitti, founded Easemytrip in 2008 as an online travel agency but has since diversified its business to foray into insurtech and electric bus manufacturing.

Pitti has been serving the role of CEO of the company since its inception. He will be succeeded by Rikant, who will further strengthen EaseMyTrip’s position in the industry, as per a regulatory filing.

As of 10:16 AM, shares of EaseMyTrip were down around 1.5% at INR 15.49 apiece during the intraday morning trade on the BSE today (January 2) from the previous close of INR 15.72.

To note, Pitti has been dissolving his ownership in the company by giving up his stake in 2024. On December 31, he sold 4,99,52,163 shares at INR 15.68 apiece, with the deal amounting to INR 78.3 Cr, as per NSE data, driving the stock to fall 10% on the back of reports stating Pitti selling his entire stake in the company. 

Prior to that, Nishant also offloaded 24.65 Cr shares of the startup via multiple block deals for INR 920 Cr, in September, leading the company’s shares to plunge 20% on the BSE.

This development comes at a time when numerous startups across various growth stages have seen some huge leadership exits in 2024, stemming from sectoral challenges or operational setbacks. Also, startups brace for potential public listings in 2025, leadership reshuffles are only expected to accelerate further. 

As per Inc42’s compilation of leadership exits in the past year, about 15 cofounders and chief executives have put their hats down. 

For instance, Reliance-owned retail technology platform Fynd’s Cofounder Harsha Shah called it quits in November, without disclosing the reason for his exit. 

Additionally, Chandan Singh, of Adda247 quit his role after nearly two years of being promoted as the cofounder of the edtech startup.