BigBasket Founders Step Down, TruNativ Bags $30 Mn & More

New Leadership Takes Over BigBasket

It is the end of an era at BigBasket. Cofounders Hari Menon and Vipul Parekh have stepped down from daily operations, while ex-Amazon executive Amit Nanda is stepping in as the new CEO. As competition and growth pressure intensify, can the new leadership rescue BigBasket?

Founders Take A Hike: The transition marks BigBasket’s first chapter without its founder DNA. The outgoing CEO Menon’s and Parekh’s (who handled marketing and finance) transition to board completes a structural shift at the startup. For owner Tata, this represents a calculated evolution to institutional corporate leadership at one of its most critical consumer internet bets. 

The exit reflects how the quick commerce giant is preparing for a different kind of growth, one shaped less by founder instinct and more by execution at scale and an experienced hand.

Amazon Veteran Steps In: Nanda arrives with deep ecommerce experience. During his decade-long run at Amazon India, he worked across marketplace, product, technology and private brands. This experience now becomes central as BigBasket looks to sharpen its strategy in quick commerce, private labels and broader digital commerce. His immediate mandate at BigBasket will be to claw back lost market share and scale margins.

Pressure On All Sides: The timing of this transition is critical. Nanda inherits a quick commerce pioneer caught in an operational squeeze. As rivals Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart redefine urban consumer habits, BigBasket has been battling a stagnating top line and high cash burn. BigBasket’s FY25 net losses widened 42% YoY to ₹2,006 Cr, while operating revenue contracted 2% YoY to ₹9,866.7 Cr. 

For BigBasket, the leadership change is more than symbolic. With founders no longer steering the wheel, can Nanda can turn this reset into a recovery? While that is a story for another day, here is all about the change of guard at BigBasket…

From The Editor’s Desk

  TruNativ Bags $30 Mn

• The nutrition-focused D2C brand has raised ₹290 Cr in its Series B round from OrbiMed to expand its offline presence in Tier I and II cities, explore partnerships and scale up R&D for its supplement stack.
• The round, which comprised both primary and secondary transactions, saw existing backers like 100Unicorns, Rainmatter and Venture Catalysts exit the startup. FMCG major Emami also diluted its holding to 10% from 19% earlier.
• Founded in 2019, TruNativ sells nutrition products such as everyday cooking protein, water-soluble fibre sachets and collagen supplements. The D2C brand closed FY26 with a revenue of ₹130 Cr, up 350% YoY, and is eyeing a topline of ₹200 Cr in FY27.

Turtlemint IPO To Open This Week

• The insurtech startup has filed its RHP with the SEBI for an IPO, which will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth ₹660.7 Cr and an OFS component of 1.46 Cr equity shares. The public issue will open on June 19 and subsequently close on June 23.
• The startup has set a price band of ₹144-152 for the public issue. The IPO values the company at about ₹4,513 Cr (about $475 Mn) at the upper end of the price band.
• Founded in 2015, Turtlemint operates as an insurance distribution platform, connecting consumers with insurers through a network of financial advisors. The startup clocked an operating revenue of ₹741 Cr in 9M FY26, while losses stood at ₹187 Cr.

Telegram Blocked Till June 22

• The IT ministry has temporarily restricted access to the messaging platform in India until June 22, 2026. The Centre has also directed the site to disable its message-editing feature in the country until June 30.
• The action was taken on recommendations from the National Testing Agency (NTA) to curb alleged exam-related fraud. As per the agency, organised cheating rackets allegedly used the platform to sell fake access to exam papers and spread misinformation.
• The NEET-UG 2026 examination, originally held on May 3, was canceled by the NTA following a multi-state paper leak. The leak has led to a massive uproar from students, with the CBI now probing the matter.

YourNest Closes Continuum Fund

• The deeptech-focused VC firm has marked the final close of its continuation vehicle, the YourNest Continuum Fund I, with a corpus of ₹400 Cr. The fundraise saw participation from family offices, individual investors and other existing investors.
• The fund will provide follow-on investments for some of the VC firm’s top performing portfolio companies, including Miko, Dozee, Thriwe, Opkey, Twid, and Exponent Energy. 
• Founded in 2011, YourNest backs early-stage deeptech ventures operating across segments like AI, healthcare, SaaS and mobility. Over the years, the VC has launched three funds, backed 51 companies and exited 10 startups.

SolarSquare Bags $53 Mn

• The rooftop solar solutions startup has raised about ₹510 Cr in its Series C round led by existing backer Lightspeed to expand to new cities, strengthen technology capabilities, scale its platform and ramp up hiring. 
• Founded in 2015, SolarSquare initially catered to B2B clientele but later forayed into the B2C segment in 2021. It currently operates as a full-stack residential solar brand that handles everything from design and installation to financing and maintenance.
• With the current fundraise, the startup has raised more than $100 Mn in funding to date. Having served nearly 50,000 homes so far, SolarSquare claims to be currently clocking ₹1,000 Cr in annual revenue run rate.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Hunar Is Bringing AI To India’s Frontline Workforce

Frontline operations in India remain heavily manual as enterprises still rely on human-led calls for hiring, onboarding and engagement. This leads to inefficiencies and high attrition. Hunar.AI is targeting this overlooked layer with conversational AI built for workforce-heavy businesses.

From Calls To Context: Founded in 2022, Hunar is building voice-based AI agents that automate frontline workflows. Its AI systems enable enterprises to handle nuanced interactions like candidate screening, onboarding, monitoring and training.

Built For Real World: The startup’s key differentiator is its hybrid voice architecture, which processes raw audio signals before converting them into text. This allows Hunar to better handle multilingual conversations, interruptions, accents, and noisy environments – common in frontline settings across India.

Scaling Steadily: The platform today processes over 5 Lakh calls daily and serves enterprises such as Swiggy, Zepto, and Bajaj Finserv. With an ARR of $3 Mn to $4 Mn, it caters to clients across logistics, retail, BFSI and healthcare, positioning itself as an autonomous workforce operations layer.

As AI adoption deepens, can Hunar.AI unlock productivity gains for India’s blue collar economy?

Infographic Of The Day

A new wave of D2C brands are raising capital, scaling communities and building in categories where consumer demand is exploding. So, which emerging brands are making waves in India’s D2C economy?

The post BigBasket Founders Step Down, TruNativ Bags $30 Mn & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.