Rohit Chadda

Rohit Chadda (born 26 August 1982) is the CEO for the digital business at Zee group (Zee Entertainment, Zee Media and DNA).[1] He is an investment banker and entrepreneur and was the co-founder of online food ordering platform Foodpanda.[2][3] He is also the founder of omni-channel payments platform PayLo.[4][5] He has been attributed for the turnaround of Zee Digital by bringing the digital business to the second position on ComScore from ninth position in a span of a few months.[6][7] He has been featured among Top Tech CEOs of the decade (2010-2020) in India.[8][9]

Rohit Chadda
Rohit Chadda
Born (1982-08-26) 26 August 1982
India
NationalityIndian
Alma materIndian Institute of Management Calcutta, Delhi Technological University
OccupationCEO, Investment Banker, Entrepreneur
TitleCEO - ZEE Digital, Co-founder - foodpanda & Founder - Paylo
Websiterohitchadda.com

Education and early career

Chadda graduated from Delhi Technological University (formerly Delhi College of Engineering)[10][11] with a degree in computer engineering and worked as a software engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation. In 2007 he joined Indian Institute of Management Calcutta to do his MBA after which he worked at Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banker in United Kingdom. He took an internal transfer to India in 2011.[2][12]

Career

Foodpanda

Chadda began his career in 2012 when he co-founded foodpanda.[13] foodpanda expanded to around 40 countries before being bought by Delivery Hero.[1] Before foodpanda got popular, he joked that he delivered pizza for a living.[13] foodpanda had raised a total investment of over US$100 million till August 2014.[14][15] Chadda in the middle of 2015 stepped down from day-to-day responsibilities at Foodpanda and was no longer a managing director.[16] Foodpanda was acquired by its global competitor Delivery Hero in 2016.[17]

Paylo

In 2015, he launched a multi-channel offline payments platform PayLo which acquired the in-restaurant payments app Ruplee in March 2016 for an undisclosed sum.[4][5][18] PayLo was successful in the wake of demonetisation in India and expanded pan-India before being acquired by Immortal Technologies.[1] Chadda believes that execution is more important than the idea to make a startup successful and the key challenge for experienced professionals to work in a startup environment is to unlearn what they have previously learned.[19][20][21] PayLo acquired Ruplee before being itself acquired by Immortal Technologies.[12]

Zee Group

On July 2, 2019, he was named CEO of digital publishing of Zee Group.[22] Since 2017, he had led global product and strategy for Zee Group launching ZEE5, the flagship OTT of Zee Entertainment, across 170+ countries.[10][22] Since June 2019, Zee Digital, the online arm of the Zee group, has registered the highest growth year-on-year among the top media publishers in India.[23] Times Internet Limited, Network 18 Group, and India Today Group have grown by 45%, 21%, and 22% respectively from June 2020 over June 2019 while Zee Digital witnessed a growth of 123% over the same period.[23] Zee Digital achieved its first milestone in September 2019 by crossing 100 million unique monthly visitors and was ranked 6th in the news and information category on ComScore India rankings at the time.[24][23] Later in the month of March 2020 it crossed 150 million unique monthly visitors mark moving to 4th position.[25][23] Further in May 2020 Zee Digital moved to 3rd position by crossing 185 million unique monthly visitors[26] mark before finally ranking 2nd position in June 2020 in the ComScore rankings among all digital media groups in India.[23]

Chadda has led the transformation of the business of Zee Digital by scaling it to over 200 million users from 60 million users making it the second-largest digital media group in India.[6][7] He attributes the growth from rank 9 to rank 2 in one year to the data and technology driven approach to content and the focus on vernacular languages.[23] During his tenure, Zee Digital launched 8 new brand websites and 3 new languages to expand the product portfolio to 20 brands and 12 languages.[6] During the US elections in November 2020, Zee Digital launched the English global news channel WION through a digital first approach across Asia Pacific, Middle East, UK and North America.[7]

Investing and speaking

Chadda is a mentor at Esselerator, a Startup accelerator by Subhash Chandra Foundation. Esselerator is an initiative by Subhash Chandra, a billionaire Media baron, to promote and support tech entrepreneurs in domains like Media, Fintech and Education. Its powered by TiE Mumbai.[27] Chadda is an angel investor in the online school aggregator platform SchoolForSure.com.[28][29] In 2019, he spoke at DPS to students on starting a business. At the time he remained CEO of Zee group's digital business division.[30]

Frauds at Foodpanda

Rohit Chaddha's time at Foodpanda was mired with several allegations of fraud. A follow-up investigation by Mint into the lapses and frauds at food-tech start-up Foodpanda has revealed that Rohit Chadda may have channelled money to a company promoted by his mother and another relative.[31] He is also accused of giving the contract for television ad production to a company where he himself was a director along with his brother. [32]

Award and recognitions
  • Aditya Birla Award for Business Leadership 2007–08, 2008–09[33]
  • Professional Entrepreneur of the Year 2014[34]
  • Young Food & Grocery Professional of the Year 2014[35]
  • Fortune 40 under 40 most influential business leaders list 2015[36]
  • Top 25 Most Talented Ecommerce Professionals in India 2015[37]
  • Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2016[38]
  • Exemplary Achievement in Corporate World 2020[39]
  • Top Tech CEOs of the Decade in India[9]
  • 10 Most Successful Tech CEOs of The Decade[8]

References
  1. Bureau, Adgully. "ZEE Group appoints Rohit Chadda to the role of CEO – Digital Publishing". www.adgully.com. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  2. "Taking the plunge – Bangalore Mirror". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  3. "I love the As – my Audi, Apple gadgets and Asics shoes: Rohit Chadda, MD and Co-founder, Foodpanda.in – The Financial Express". The Financial Express. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  4. Poovanna, Sharan (22 March 2016). "Payments platform Paylo buys Ruplee". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  5. "Paylo.in acquires in-restaurant payment app Ruplee". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  6. Desk, India com Business (17 December 2020). "Rohit Chadda, The Turnaround CEO Carved Out Another Success Story in 2020". India News, Breaking News | India.com. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  7. Bureau, BW Online. "Leading The New Normal, Rohit Chadda, The Transformational CEO Turns Around Zee Digital". BW Businessworld. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  8. Desk, India com Business (27 December 2020). "10 Most Successful Tech CEOs of The Decade". India News, Breaking News | India.com. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  9. "Snapshot: Top Tech CEOs of the decade in India | Latest News & Updates at DNAIndia.com". DNA India. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  10. "Rohit Chadda | LinkedIn". in.linkedin.com. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  11. Lamba, Prerna (12 September 2019). "A World-Class Centre Of Excellence". Business World. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  12. Chadda, Rohit (5 June 2020). "Who is Rohit Chadda?". Rohit Chadda. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  13. Sarkar, John (3 April 2015). "Braving parents & in-laws". Times of India. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  14. "SmartCEO – Magazine – Starting Up – Hello, food!". www.thesmartceo.in. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  15. "FoodPanda raises $60 mn in a new round of funding – Times of India". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  16. www.ETRetail.com. "Foodpanda India co-founder Rohit Chadda steps down as MD – ET Retail". ETRetail.com. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  17. "Delivery Hero acquires Foodpanda as Rocket Internet shuffles online takeout pack once again". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  18. "Money on the move – The Financial Express". The Financial Express. 17 April 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  19. "Startup mantras from entrepreneurs like NR Narayana Murthy, Richard Branson, Kunal Bahl and others". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  20. Chaturvedi, Pooja (11 January 2015). "The office is shifting". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  21. "The Net Neutrality debate: Paytm and FoodPanda co-founders elaborate". The Financial Express. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  22. "Zee Group appoints Rohit Chadda as CEO-Digital Publishing". BestMediaInfo. 2 July 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  23. "Zee Digital ranks 2nd among digital media publishers, shows Comscore India Report June 2020". Zee Business. 7 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  24. "Zee Digital Crosses 100 Million Unique Monthly Users in comScore India Ranking in September 2019". headlinestoday. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  25. "Zee Digital continues its growth streak, crosses 150 million users in March 2020: ComScore India". DNA India. 20 May 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  26. Desk, India com News (2 July 2020). "Zee Digital Crosses 185 Million Users in May 2020 on ComScore, Registers 168% Growth Over Previous Year". India News, Breaking News, Entertainment News | India.com. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  27. "Entrepreneurship". subhashchandrafoundation.org.
  28. "Online School Aggregator Platform SchoolForSure.com Raises Funding Led by Rohit Chadda". Business Standard. 26 January 2017.
  29. "SchoolForSure.com | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  30. "Scholar badges given at DPS, Vasant Kunj". Hindustan Times. 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  31. Mishra, Ashish K. (8 January 2016). "The link between Capricorn eServe and former Foodpanda MD Rohit Chadda". mint. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  32. Mishra, Ashish K. (16 September 2015). "The trouble with Foodpanda". mint. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  33. "VC Circle Profile".
  34. "Entrepreneur India Awards".
  35. "CMO ASIA Awards". www.cmoasia.org. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  36. "Fortune 40 under 40".
  37. "Asia Retail Congress Awards". www.asiaretailcongress.com. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  38. "Rohit Chadda LinkedIn".
  39. "IIM Rohtak organises marathon for peace and unity". Zee News. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.