Swiggy Bulks Up Leadership; Eyes Wider Services Play

Food delivery and quick commerce major Swiggy has expanded its leadership team with two senior-level appointments to strengthen operations of its core businesses food delivery and quick commerce ahead of its stock market debut on November 13.

The foodtech major has appointed former Flipkart executive Shalabh Shrivastava as senior vice president of Driver Org. In his new role, Shrivastava will focus on optimising product and operations of Swiggy’s delivery fleet.

Further, Hari Kumar G has been appointed as senior vice president and chief business officer of Swiggy Instamart to accelerate customer-centric growth and strengthen the company’s position in the quick commerce space.

The appointments are part of Swiggy’s strategy to scale its operations, boost its delivery service and fuel its growth in both food delivery and quick commerce verticals.

Prior to joining Swiggy, Shrivastava served as vice president of Flipkart and is credited with scaling its first and last mile operations and strengthening its supply chain. He has worked with a number of top companies including Reliance Retail, Infosys, among others.

Meanwhile, in his previous stint at Flipkart, Kumar G led key categories such as electronics, appliances and groceries. 

Commenting on the appointments, Girisih Menon, chief human resources officer of Swiggy, said, “As Swiggy accelerates its innovation and expands into new categories and services, strengthening our leadership team is critical to driving the next phase of our growth. Hari and Shalabh bring deep expertise in scaling businesses and optimizing operations across dynamic, fast-paced industries.”

The development comes amid reports that Swiggy is planning to enter new categories as the company aims to diversify beyond its core businesses. 

The company is also reportedly planning to launch a pilot for services marketplace dubbed ‘Yello’. This will potentially allow customers to engage with professionals such as lawyers, astrologers, dieticians, therapists and fitness trainers, an ET report claimed.

Further, as reported by Inc42, the company is launching Rare Life, a concierge service geared towards the growing class of high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). 

In the run up to its IPO, Swiggy also launched 10-minute food delivery service ‘Bolt’ in select cities like Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, among others.

Swiggy’s public issue was subscribed 3.59 times with qualified institutional buyers leading the way.  The company’s shares are expected to list on the stock markets later this week.  

Early backers of Swiggy, including the likes of Accel India and Elevation Capital, are set to make returns exceeding 34X by partially divesting their stakes.

Swiggy’s consolidated net loss widened by over 8% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 611 Cr in the June quarter (Q1) of FY25 while operating revenue increased 35% YoY to INR 3,222.2 Cr.