ZebPay CEO Avinash Shekhar Quits; To Launch Own Web 3.0 Startup

Indian crypto startup ZebPay’s chief executive officer (CEO) Avinash Shekhar has stepped down from his current position to start his own venture. 

Shekhar is planning to launch a startup in the nascent Web 3.0 space. Confirming the development, ZebPay told Inc42 in a statement that Shekhar will continue in an advisory role with it.

“Avinash will focus on his startup later this year, which is in the Web3 space, but he will continue to stay in an advisory role on ZebPay, as a director. Rahul (Pagidipati, chairman of ZebPay) has always been a part of the decisions at ZebPay and will continue to lead the business going forward,” the statement said.

ZebPay will reportedly own a minority stake in Shekhar’s startup. His resignation comes days after the crypto exchange’s CFO Tarun Jain left the startup. Jain is currently working as Group CFO at Lithium Urban Technologies, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Shekhar joined ZebPay as a CFO in 2017, as per his LinkedIn profile. He was promoted to the role of COO in 2020, co-CEO in April 2021, and CEO in December 2021. He earlier worked with Urban Ladder, Forever 21 and DGM Finance, among others.

Founded in 2014, ZebPay is Mumbai-based crypto exchange. It claims to have helped over 5 Mn users in starting their crypto journey till date and carried out fiat transactions of $10 Bn.

Amid the prevailing funding winter and high taxes levied on crypto currencies, ZebPay has reportedly witnessed the exit of several other senior management employees. However, Pagidipati said that most of the resignations are from mid-level management employees. 

“We are doing what we always do. This is just a part of the course, of people coming in and going out. I don’t think there’s any more attrition now than there was six months ago. In this bear market where crypto corrected 90%, some companies get stronger, some die and some become zombie companies,” Pagidipati told MoneyControl. 

The crypto space in the country has been hit by regulatory uncertainty and high taxes. Earlier this year, the government imposed a 30% tax on income from crypto assets. Besides, it has also announced 1% TDS on crypto transactions.

While the government has not made its stance on the crypto industry clear, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Parliament in July that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is of the view that cryptocurrencies should be banned.

Besides, the RBI will also launch the much-awaited central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of the ongoing financial year.

The crypto exchanges in the country are also under the radar of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The agency is probing the crypto exchanges in connection with its investigation in illegal digital loan apps, and suspects that the exchanges were used by the operators of these apps to transfer the “proceeds of crime” outside India.

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