Startup leadership shake-up in 2025: 50 new CEOs, 12 co-founders elevated, 17 step down

Leadership changes across India’s startup ecosystem accelerated in 2025, as more than 70 companies across early-stage, growth-stage, and recently listed firms saw notable shifts. These included new CEO appointments, co-founders stepping down, taking on new roles, or rising to top leadership positions.

According to data compiled by TheKredible, Indian startups appointed 50 new CEOs in 2025, including 21 internal elevations, 12 key executives promoted to co-founders positions, and saw 35 leaders exit their positions. In comparison, 2024 recorded 46 leadership changes, comprising 27 CEO appointments, three co-founder elevations, and 16 resignations.

Startups including Navi Technologies, Angel One, Globalbees, Livspace, Rebel Foods, Dunzo, PharmEasy, Unacademy, and boAt were among those that reshaped their senior leadership this year. The churn also extended to listed entities such as Eternal, EaseMyTrip, Infibeam Avenues, Paytm Payments Bank, Mobikwik, and PaisaBazaar.

CEOs appointed in 2025

2025 saw 50 new chief executive officers (CEOs) being appointed among which 21 executives were elevated to the role of CEO. Lendingkart has named former DBS Bank MD Prashant Joshi as CEO, shortly after Temasek-backed Fullerton Financial Holdings acquired a majority stake in the lendingtech startup. Navi appointed Rajiv Naresh as CEO of Navi Technologies and Abhishek Dwivedi as CEO of Navi Finserv after Sachin Bansal moved to the role of Executive Chairman of the Navi Group. Home Decor startup Livspace elevated COO Ramakant Sharma to the position of CEO. 

Stockbroking firm Angel One appointed Ambarish Kenghe as its Group CEO, while Thyrocare MD and CEO Rahul Guha took over as CEO of API Holdings, the parent of PharmEasy, following Siddharth Shah’s exit. Foodtech unicorn Rebel Foods named Ankush Grover as CEO after Jaydeep Barman transitioned to the role of Chairman. Meanwhile, Zoho elevated co-founder Shailesh Kumar Davey to CEO, with Sridhar Vembu stepping down to take on the role of chief scientist.

Elevated co-founders in 2025

Around nine Indian startups elevated key executives to co-founder roles in 2025, recognising their contributions to the companies’ growth journeys. Among them, Treebo Hospitality Ventures promoted Hardin Goyal to Founding Partner after a decade-long stint at the firm. Corporate health benefits platform ekincare elevated Somak Ray, vice president–operations, to co-founder, while deep-tech startup Enlog named its CTO Ayush Gupta as co-founder. Edtech startup Masai also expanded its leadership team by appointing Keshav Misra as co-founder and COO, and elevating Aman Vats and Ankit Agrawal as co-founders.

Co-founders and CEOs who stepped down

Other than new appointments and promotions, about 15 startups co-founders stepped down from their roles to either start their own venture or join another firm in 2025. Notable exits included BluSmart founders Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, who stepped away from the company after a fraud case emerged at their promoter firm, Gensol Engineering. Online pharmacy Pharmeasy’s co-founders, Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah and Hardik Dedhia and Harsh Parekh left the company to launch home improvement venture All Home.

Ishwar Sridharan, co-founder and COO of cloud telephony and customer engagement firm Exotel, stepped down after 14 years with the company. More recently, Nitin Jain, co-founder and CBO of B2B ecommerce platform OfBusiness, resigned and is set to launch a new venture. Romil Jain, co-founder and former CTO of SaaS startup Increff, also exited the firm, while Freshworks co-founder Girish Mathrubootham stepped away to focus on Together Fund.

Several high-profile CEOs stepped down during the year. Sachin Bansal moved from CEO of Navi Technologies and Navi Finserv to Executive Chairman of the Navi Group, while EaseMyTrip’s CEO, Nishant Pitti resigned citing personal reasons. GlobalBees CEO Nitin Agarwal also exited, along with Varun Sridhar, CEO of Paytm Services, after a five-year tenure. Other departures included Abha Maheshwari of Allen Digital, Paytm Payments Bank MD and CEO Nakul Jain, and the co-founder and CEO of conversational AI platform Haptik, among others.