Rishi Arora Elevated as Blinkit Cofounder

According to a person familiar with the situation, quick commerce startup Blinkit, which is in the process of being acquired by food delivery company Zomato, promoted long-time executive Rishi Arora to cofounder level two months before the acquisition. Sajal Gupta, a former Zomato executive, was also appointed as the company's CTO.

The appointment of Arora as cofounder follows the departure of Blinkit co-founder Saurabh Kumar in June of last year. Kumar went on to found Warpli, a company that delivers everything from groceries to electronics in 30 minutes.

On June 10, the startup announced that it was halting operations due to a "lack of tech infrastructure" at local stores used for last-mile delivery. The startup said it would relaunch the app soon.

Arora has been with Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, for over eight years and previously held the position of senior vice president of operations. Meanwhile, Gupta worked for Zomato for five years before joining Blinkit in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. According to the source cited above, the promotions were announced via the internal communication platform Slack. ET's inquiries were not answered by Zomato or Blinkit.