Zomato COO resigns, will remain member of Board of Advisors

Deepak Gulati, who had joined Zomato as a chief operating officer some months ago has resigned from online restaurant discovery and food ordering platform. He, however, will remain as a member of Board of Advisors.

"While Gulati recommended and put in place processes to remove inefficiencies, the implementation of that is ultimately the company's. He was brought into the firm by Sequoia Capital,“ said a source talking to The Economic Times.

Gulati is the former CEO of Tata Docomo and had joined Zomato during March, this year. He was appointed to strengthen the various business verticals of the company.

Gulati's appointment was not an investor led decision. Sequoia has in the past helped us with various senior positions, and that is the extent of their involvement in his hiring as well," clarified the spokesperson.

In the past few months, Zomato has showcased some new numbers and claiming to regain from the shaky position.

According to media report, the online food ordering and restaurant discovery platform is in advanced talks to raise up to $200 million from Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial at a valuation of $1.1 billion.

This month, the company acquired hyperlocal logistics startup Runnr in all stock deal.

The transaction valued Zomato at $800 million while Runnr, which is the merged entity of Roadrunnr and TinyOwl, two of the most well-funded startups of 2015, had an enterprise value of $40 million.

Out of the $40 million ascribed to Runnr as its valuation, the investor pool comprised $25 million with the common pool (including shares held by founders and employees) being valued at $15 million.

Zomato currently fulfils delivery for over 3 million orders monthly, and only about 7 per cent of overall orders are being facilitated by Zomato through third-party delivery companies.

Recently, Zomato had integrated with the Indian ride-hailing app Ola, which will allow users to book rides and pay via the company’s mobile wallet, Ola Money.