Exclusive: Grofers’ CTO Jacob Singh Quits After A 3 Years Stint

The Chief Technology Office of Grofers, Jacob Singh has resigned from his position after a 3-year long tenure at the daily essential delivery firm.

Grofers has confirmed the news, stating that Jacob’s decision of quitting the company came before the COVID-19 crisis, i.e. before the Nation-wide lockdown.

Singh worked as the technical leadership coach of the company in his initial nine months and headed products, data, engineering, and design for e-Grocer. As his LinkedIn profile displays, Singh led the Tech team from 50-220 at Grofers and was successful in building the company’s technology sound enough to scale it up to $600 million GVM from $40 million in three years.

He was contributory to the design, launch, and, scaling of Grofers paid loyalty programe. Being a graduate from the Berkeley City College, Singh was working with Acquia as a country head before joining Grofers.

Jacob Singh said “At this stage, the company has reached a substantial scale and I felt my talents as a startup leader could be better used elsewhere. Currently, I am helping to mentor a few high-growth tech startups and looking forward to taking up independent consulting opportunities,”  

Also Read: Online Alcohol Delivery in India: Did Zomato and Swiggy get the approval to Deliver Alcohol?

The name Grofers is a portmanteau of "grocery gophers" and is an mobile-commerce marketplace for daily shopping. It allows the user to shop groceries, Fruits & Vegetables, Bakery items, Flowers, Meats, Pet Care, Baby Care, and Cosmetics products with just a few taps. You can get everything delivered instantly (within 90 minutes) or schedule it for a convenient time later.

Grofers, the SoftBank-backed company has a revenue of Rs 1282.3 Crores in the financial year 2019 witnessing growth by 2.4% as compared to the Rs 532.8 in the financial year 2018. Its total expenditure also increased by 2%, i.e. to Rs 1993.5 Crore in the financial year 2019. The company raised $535.5 million from its investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global, and Sequoia capital.

Also Read: Albinder Dhindsa: CEO And Co-Founder Of Grofers

The firm was also recently in talks with Zomato for a potential merge and is also expecting investment from the Paytm Mall. However, the talks seem to have run out. Grofers has also been seen powering Zomato’s grocery offering but the Ant financial-backed firm eventually decided to downscale its grocery delivery service- Zomato Market and is likely to shut down the grocery vertical soon.

Besides grocery and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) offerings, Grofers has also stepped into the fashion world and has started selling products including footwear, accessories, and cloths.

Grofers has also been dealing with a surge in demand and disruption in its supply chain due to the fear of the contagion of the Novel Coronavirus and was among the only few online grocery platforms along with Big Basket and Amazon India who were continued to deliver even during the Global pandemic. The Albinder Dhindsa led company was successful in providing a decent service to its customers during the first two phases of the nation-wide lockdown.