Former Nirula's CEO to lead Zomato's cloud-based PoS business

Restaurant listings and discovery company Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd has appointed Samir Kuckreja, former chief executive of QSR chain Nirula's Corner House, as president of its cloud-based point-of-sale (PoS) system, Zomato Base.

Prior to joining Zomato full-time in February, Kuckreja served as a consultant to the firm, a Zomato spokesperson told Techcircle.

The development was first reported by The Economic Times.

A graduate of St Stephen's College and Cornell University, Kuckreja comes with 26 years of experience in different roles in the restaurant industry. Prior to joining Zomato, Kuckreja founded Tasanaya Hospitality Pvt Ltd, a consulting firm servicing international and domestic restaurant chains. Besides serving as CEO of Nirula, he was joint managing director for Mars Hotels and Restaurants and was former president of the National Restaurants Association of India.

Zomato Base enables restaurants to manage their operations from a single platform. It offers menu, inventory and recipe management, besides facilitating online and offline payments. The platform also comes with an integrated app marketplace.

Other initiatives that the restaurant listings firm plans to roll out two more initiatives between February and June 2017 in a bid to increase revenue and profitability. With Zomato Infrastructure Services, the firm will set up kitchens for restaurants and assist in delivery, while Zomato Red will provide consumers an annual membership service to avail of offers at restaurants.

In November last year, Zomato had hired Morgan Stanley to raise a new round of funding, for its food delivery business and restaurant reservations and deals.

In its funding round in September 2015, Zomato raised $60 million from Singapore government's investment firm Temasek and existing investor Vy Capital, which valued the firm over $1 billion.

For the financial year ended March 2016, Zomato plunged deeper into the red, posting pre-tax loss of Rs 492.27 crore versus Rs 136 crore the year before, a four-fold increase. Revenue doubled to Rs 184.96 crore in FY16 from Rs 96.73 crore.

Founded in 2008 by IIT Delhi alumni and former Bain employees Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, Zomato's losses have multiplied over the years as it expanded rapidly. In January 2016, it shut down its online food ordering service in four cities—Lucknow, Kochi, Indore and Coimbatore, and launched its online food ordering business in April 2015.