In rare and bold move, Zomato elevates COO Gaurav Gupta as co-founder

In a reward for showing maturity and executing a given role in the organisation, online food delivery firm Zomato has given its COO Gaurav Gupta a title of co-founder.

Gupta, who joined Zomato in 2015, has led the launch of several services the online food ordering business across key international markets. He launched the table reservation business and scaled it up across- India, UAE, Australia.

Apart from leading advertising sales globally, Gupta played an instrumental role in launching subscription service Zomato Gold and scaling it to one of the fastest growing paid membership program. He is now also working Zomato's payments business under Zomato Pay.

"We are going to call GG 'co-founder and COO', in addition to his COO role," said co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal in a mail to its employee adding that this is an act of empowerment for his ability to level-up to a role.

Goyal praised Gupta for his role in the success of businesses such as subscription service Zomato Gold, Hyperpure (where it supplies fruits, vegetables, and meat to restaurants), events unit Zomaland, said an ET report.

Zomato in an email reply confirmed the development to Entrackr.

This is one of the rare moments in startup eco-system, where the company's experienced executives have been given the title of founding partner.

In 2017, Ola had given early employee Pranay Jivrajka the title founding partner, who is now heading Foodpand as CEO.

This happens about a year after Pankaj Chaddah, who co-founded Zomato with Goyal in 2008, put in his papers.

Chaddah, among donning several hats, also served as COO at the firm. Deepak Gulati, who had joined Zomato as a chief operating officer had also resigned in September 2017.

Meanwhile, the development is also seen as a good sign for a startup ecosystem as founders of the firms are now willing to share credit, where it is due. It is not a trend in the startup ecosystem as of now.

But the good part is, Zomato has given momentum to the trend. And, it would be interesting to observe how others follow it.