Hyperlocal discovery platform Nearbuy CEO to step down

Ankur Warikoo, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nearbuy, an online marketplace for offline neighbourhood deals, announced on social media platform Twitter that he will step down as the CEO in November 2019.

Personal Update:
Come November, I will be stepping down as CEO of @nearbuy, while continuing to enjoy the journey as a shareholder and board member.

Thread/

— Ankur Warikoo (@warikoo) September 27, 2019

Co-founder Ravi Shankar L will serve as the CEO and Snehesh Mitra, co-founder and former chief procurement officer, will be the chief operating officer, said the tweet.

Warikoo also said in his tweet that he will continue as a shareholder and board member of Nearbuy. 

Gurugram-headquartered Nearbuy is majority-owned by Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led digital payments unicorn Paytm.

“We are entering an exciting new phase of growth as we see a lot of untapped opportunities in this space. Our goal is to be the No.1 lifestyle app of choice for our customers. The next phase of growth is to expand to more cities while also adding new categories," said Ravi Shankar.

In March, it was reported that Nearbuy managed to pare its losses but also reported lower net sales for the financial year 2017-18. 

Nearbuy claims to be the largest hyperlocal ecommerce platform in India. The startup operates in 33 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Pune and Chennai. The Gurugram-based startup operates through a network of over 68,000 merchants and claims to have served over nine million customers.

The startup connects its users to offline merchants and vendors operating restaurants, spas wellness centres, shopping centres, boutiques and events such as concerts. The app also serves as a deal discovery platform for mobile phones and accommodation bookings. 

Nearbuy, formerly Groupon India, was founded in 2015 by Warikoo, Mitra, Ravi Shankar, Sumeet Kapur, Sachin Kapur and Ankur Sarawagi. Sachin Kapur and Sarawagi had exited the startup in 2016, media reports said.

In 2015, NYSE (New York Stock Exchange)-listed Groupon hived off its India unit and was renamed Nearbuy.

In March 2015, Sequoia Capital India invested $20 million in the startup, as per VCCEdge, the research platform owned by Mosaic Media Ventures, the parent company of TechCircle.

The following year, the startup raised venture debt funding of $2.2 million from investment firm BlackSoil Capital. 

TechCircle reported in July 2018 that Nearbuy expected its sales to cross the Rs 250 crore mark with a net profit of more than Rs 17 crore by the financial year 2022-23.