Zepto, a quick-commerce startup backed by Y Combinator, has appointed Ramesh Bafna, the former Chief Financial Officer of cryptocurrency firm Coinswitch, as the new head of its finance division. Bafna replaces Jitendra Nagpal, who had joined Zepto just two and a half years ago.
Prior to joining Coinswitch in June of last year, Bafna served as the CFO for Zilingo, a Sequoia-backed company, as well as for Myntra, which is owned by Flipkart.
After serving as the Vice President of Finance for healthtech major PharmEasy, Nagpal intends to establish a venture capital fund to support startups across various sectors soon. In the meantime, he will offer consultancy services to startups. Two individuals familiar with the matter stated that Nagpal’s notice period may expire as soon as next month.
“Ramesh is a best-in-class ecommerce CFO and he will build a best-in-class finance team at Zepto,” Aadit Palicha, CEO of Zepto, said in a statement.
“Through disciplined execution, Zepto is delivering incredible progress on growth and profitability. To take Zepto public in 2-3 years, we believe we need an incredible CFO and Ramesh is the right person for the job,” Palicha said.
Zepto, established in 2021 by Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, has emerged as one of the most well-funded quick-commerce startups in the country, providing stiff competition to Swiggy Instamart and Blinkit, which is owned by Zomato. The company has raised $361 million thus far from investors such as Y Combinator, Nexus Venture Partners, Global Founders Capital, and Glade Brook Capital. Its valuation currently stands at nearly $900 million.
As per the aforementioned individuals, Zepto is presently seeking to secure additional funding.
“Zepto is looking to secure more money given that quick commerce is a cash-intensive business. But we know that it is tough to raise money without disturbing the valuation in this market,” said one of the persons mentioned earlier.
Palicha contradicted the claim that Zepto was raising funds, stating that the company had ample cash reserves.