Bengaluru-based Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates online food ordering platform Swiggy, has appointed former Britannia Industries executive Rahul Bothra as chief financial officer.
This is the first time the three-year-old startup has appointed a CFO. According to his LinkedIn account, Bothra took charge as CFO at Swiggy this month.
The appointment is part of Swiggy’s strategy to strengthen its top deck, even as it embarks on an expansion mode, riding on the back of a fresh round of funding. In May, Swiggy raised $80 million in its Series E round of funding from Naspers and others.
A Swiggy spokesperson said, “Swiggy is looking to strengthen the team to support growth. Bothra has come on board as CFO to build on this growth and deliver greater efficiency and value to the business and Swiggy’s ecosystem of partners.â€
The development was first reported by The Economic Times.
A chartered accountant by qualification, Bothra was previously divisional CFO and vice president - finance at agricultural commodity trading company Olam International. Prior to that, he had a seven-year stint at Britannia. Earlier, he also worked at Colgate-Palmolive and Wipro.
Swiggy is a significantly funded player in the online food delivery space, having raised $155 million so far from the likes of Naspers, Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel India, SAIF Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. In September 2016, it secured a $15 million in its Series D funding round and in January last year, it raised $35 million in its Series C round.
The startup was founded in August 2014 by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini. Majety and Reddy are BITS-Pilani alumni while Jaimini is an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus.
Swiggy posted losses of Rs 137 crore on a total income of Rs 23.6 crore in FY2015-16. It recorded net sales of Rs 20 crore during the period.
While companies like Swiggy and Foodpanda are standalone online food delivery players, they are staring at a potential threat from Zomato which is looking to beef up its delivery infrastructure.
Earlier this month, media reports stated that Zomato may receive a whopping $200 million (Rs 1,283 crore) from Chinese e-tailing behemoth Alibaba. According to industry experts, this could trigger a possible consolidation in the space.
In a recent interaction with VCCircle, Saurabh Kochhar, CEO of Foodpanda, did not rule out a possible consolidation scenario and hinted that it may partner with Swiggy, should the circumstance demanded.
Naspers is a common investor in both Swiggy and Foodpanda.
