Co-founder of Sequoia-backed online grocery firm Grofers steps back from his role

Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of online grocery platform Grofers, announced that his co-founder Saurabh Kumar will take a step back from his role at the company.

Grofers co-founder Saurabh Kumar / Photo credit: Grofers

As part of the management change, Kumar will not be involved in the day-to-day operations at Grofers. However, he will continue to be a board member and a shareholder at the company.

“This is the end of an era for Grofers, and I know all of us will absolutely miss having him around every day. I wish him the absolute best with his new mission and will be cheering for him with love and pride,” said Dhindsa in a blog post.

The development comes amid reports of restaurant aggregator Zomato being in talks to invest around US$100 million in Grofers after discussions of a possible merger between the two fell through last year at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grofers is also reportedly weighing a plan to go public in the US through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, which could bump up its valuation to US$1 billion.

“When I look back at what we have achieved in this short time, I can only feel proud. You should too. We have gone through a fair share of ups and downs but we always faced them together and came out stronger,” said Kumar in a letter to Grofers employees.

In May 2019, SoftBank’s Vision Fund led a US$200 million round in Grofers, along with top investors such as Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and KTB participating.