Swiggy Taps HUL Veteran Ashwath Swaminathan For Marketing, Growth Push

Bengaluru-based food delivery giant Swiggy, which is gearing up to list itself on the stock exchanges later this year, has roped in Hindustan Unilever (HUL) veteran Ashwath Swaminathan as its chief growth and marketing officer.

This comes close on the heels of the company looking to sack 400 staff, or around 6% of its total workforce, as part of a corporate realignment process. The layoffs may impact employees across departments, but the tech and customer support teams took the hardest hit.

Swaminathan, who was heading the oral care and deodorants business as a vice president for HUL, in his new role will help in driving Swiggy’s marketing growth.

“Swaminathan brings with him the right experience and a strong track record of strengthening consumer brands and growth marketing through data-driven insights and strategic collaborations. He joins Swiggy at a time of unprecedented opportunity, and we’re excited by the critical role he will play in bringing our mission of unparalleled convenience to life,” the company’s group CEO Sriharsha Majety said.

With 17 years of experience in HUL, Swaminathan was at the helm in building the FMCG giant’s green tea business and also helped it grow across cosmetic brand Lakme and oral care brands – Pepsodent and Closeup.

Prior to joining HUL, he was with the market research firm Kantar.

“I look forward to helping elevate the Swiggy brand for the next chapter of innovation and growth and make it an iconic brand by offering unparalleled convenience to urban Indians,” Swaminathan said.

Swaminathan’s addition to C-suite comes at a time when the foodtech major is looking to strengthen its top level before hitting the public markets. Earlier, in January, the company hired Anirban Roy as vice president of growth, revenue and category for Swiggy Instamart. It also hired Dipak Krishnamani to head Swiggy Mall as vice president back in September 2023. Swiggy brought onboard FMCG veteran Anand Kripalu as an independent director and the chairperson of its board of directors to strengthen its board in December. 

Swiggy has also witnessed a slew of top-level exits over the past year.  

It is pertinent to note that Swaminathan will be filing in for Ashish Lingamneni, who was heading the startup’s marketing as the vice president of marketing- brand, product marketing and sustainability before exiting in May 2023. 

More recently, Sidharth Satpathy, vice president at the food delivery giant-owned Instamart, stepped down from his role after over a four-year stint last month. Other notable recent exits from Swiggy’s top level include senior SVP Karthik Gurumurthy, who built Swiggy Instamart and left in November to launch his venture, Convenio, chief technology officer (CTO) Dale Vaz, also quit Swiggy to launch a new startup in April. Senior vice president of growth and revenue Anuj Rathi also resigned in September to join Jupiter Money. Around the same time, another senior executive of Swiggy Instamart, Nishad Kenkre, also put down his papers. 

The company reported a net loss of INR 4,179.3 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23), an increase of 15% from INR 3,628.9 Cr in the previous financial year. However, its operating revenue jumped over 40% to INR 8,264.4 Cr during the year under review from INR 5,704.9 Cr in FY22 as it scaled up its quick commerce vertical during the year.