Grofers cofounder Saurabh Kumar exits, says he wants to ‘wander again’

• Saurabh Kumar shared a farewell email with Grofers’ employees earlier today, hinting at another entrepreneurial journey.
• He had founded Grofers’ along with Albinder Dhindsa back in 2013.
• Grofers has reportedly been in talks with Zomato to raise a $100 million to accelerate its position in the market.

Grofers’ cofounder Saurabh Kumar has decided to step away from his role at the online grocery delivery giant, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) Albinder Dhindsa announced on Friday. Though Kumar will no longer be involved in the day-to-day activities at the grocery delivery firm, he will continue to be a board member and a shareholder at the company.

“Over the last 6 months, SK [Saurabh Kumar] had been yearning to invest in his own personal evolution – to grow beyond a growth driver to become a designer, enabler and coach. And diving deeper has convinced him that this is another area he can have a huge impact on, if he can build on it from scratch,” Dhindsa wrote in a blog post.

Kumar, in a farewell email to employees at Grofers, wrote “I haven't known a life outside Grofers for the last 8 years. Most of my learning and growing up has happened here. In my mistakes, I have never felt alone. And every time we made a dent, we shared success the same.” He also mentioned that he wants to “wander again”, hinting towards another entrepreneurial journey.

Kumar, an Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay alumnus, has previously been associated with Cambridge Systematics, Opera Solutions and Rasilant Technologies before co-founding Grofers in 2013. Both Kumar and Dhindsa had held senior positions at consulting firm Cambridge Systematics between 2008-2010.

Kumar’s exit comes at a time when Grofers has reportedly been in talks with Zomato to raise around $100 million in order to further accelerate its position in the online grocery segment. As per media reports, Zomato was actually in talks to acquire Grofers last year, but the talk fell through. The deal has reportedly once again resumed, valuing Grofers at $1 billion.

Grofers has, so far, raised close to $662 million across equity and debt rounds. Its investors include Sequoia Capital India, Trifecta Capital Advisors, SoftBank Vision Fund, Abu Dhabi Capital Group as well as Bennett Coleman and Co ltd.

In the financial year 2020, the company had earned a revenue of ₹176 crore. Of this about ₹165 crore was earned as commissions on sales. Its expenses were ₹814 crore, leading to a net loss of ₹637 crore. The company claimed that its losses were largely due to its investments in marketing to create more customer brand awareness and strengthen our delivery partner network.

The company competes with BigBasket, which is the biggest online grocery delivery startup in the Indian market at the moment. BigBasket claims to conduct 300,000 deliveries on a daily basis, and was acquired by the Tata Group last month.


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