Zomato signs on Durga Raghunath to drive growth in new businesses

Online restaurant search and food delivery company Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd has appointed Durga Raghunath, currently chief executive officer at Indian Express Digital Media Services, as senior vice president of growth. Raghunath will join Zomato on 21 December 2018, the company said in a statement.

At Zomato, Raghunath will be responsible for managing new businesses such as the Gurugram-based company’s upcoming food events vertical and SneakPeek, which is its recent foray into video content. She will also spearhead ad innovations, the statement said. Incidentally, this will be Raghunath’s second stint at Zomato. She had previously worked there in the same capacity between June and October 2015, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining Indian Express, Raghunath was co-founder and chief executive of publishing firm Juggernaut Books and also headed Network18 Digital.

Raghunath, 40, is a management graduate from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and has a publishing degree from Columbia University, New York. She also has a post-graduate diploma in social communications media from Sophia College in Mumbai and has a bachelor’s in Chemistry from Stella Maris College, Chennai.

"I have always been impressed by the way Zomato delivers true product value by getting the details right. Deepinder (Goyal)'s clear vision for the future is exciting as well as scary,” she said.

Zomato has seen a number of changes in its senior management rank this year. In July, it appointed Mohit Gupta as the chief executive officer of its food delivery business. In June, Mukund Kulashekaran quit as the chief business officer after a three-year stint. Co-founder Pankaj Chaddah left in March after a decade. In January, the company named global advertising sales head Gaurav Gupta as its chief operating officer to replace Chaddah. In May, it appointed General Electric executive Sameer Maheshwary as its chief financial officer.

Zomato was founded in 2008 by Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi alumni Goyal and Chaddah, who were both previously executives at management consultancy firm Bain & Company.

The company’s net losses reduced to Rs 106.3 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 390 crore in the previous year, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies. Operating revenue grew 40% to Rs 466.36 crore from Rs 332.27 crore. Total costs reduced by 1.6% to Rs 591.40 crore against Rs 600.77 crore in the previous year.