ZestMoney Founders Resign After Failed PhonePe Deal; Appoint New Leaders
ZestMoney's three co-founders and key executives have stepped down from their daily duties at the startup, months after a failed deal with PhonePe.
"Almost eight years ago, Priya Sharma, Ashish Anantharaman, and I started ZestMoney with a dream of making life affordable for millions of Indians," Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Lizzie Chapman wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Sharma was the chief financial officer, while Anantharaman was the chief technology officer.
"Over the last few weeks, we have done a lot of thinking about the best path forward for ourselves, given where the company is at. And whilst it has been very hard for us to arrive at this conclusion, we have decided that we will step back from our day-to-day operating roles with ZestMoney," Chapman wrote.
The founders will continue to be "significant shareholders in the company", she said.
Chapman said the leadership baton will now be passed on to Vice President of Finance Mohit Chhajer, Chief Banking Officer Mandar Satpute, and Senior Vice President and Head of Growth Abhishek Sharma.
"They have all been with us on the journey for a long time, having helped build and scale the company to be the largest digital lending franchise in the country. We have 100% belief in ZestMoney's potential and the 175 incredible 'Zesties', who are more than ready to take on the huge opportunity that lies ahead for the company," she wrote.
In a separate tweet on Monday, PhonePe Chief Executive Officer Sameer Nigam said that his company has not taken over any of ZestMoney's assets or non-banking financial companies' businesses and has separately hired about 130 of their employees as the company needed to downsize.
Fact check:@PhonePe has:
May 15, 2023
1. NOT taken over any of ZM's tech assets or IP
2. NOT taken over ZM's clients, business or NPAs
3. NOT taken over ZM's NBFC biz
4. NOT hiring any more ZM employees
We bought a copy of their LSP tech IP & separately hired ~130 ZM employees.
1/2Goldman Sachs and PayU-backed ZestMoney's troubles began about two months ago when PhonePe walked away from acquiring the company after it failed to meet its due diligence standards.
In April, ZestMoney laid off close to 20% of its workforce, or 100 employees, as part of its business continuity and survival plan.
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