Pahwa ends Meru ride after 5 years

Meru Cabs chief executive officer Siddhartha Pahwa has resigned from the company after a fiveyear stint at the country's first taxi aggregator.“I have spent a good five years at Meru. It is now a stable organisation with cash break-even and is growing profitably ,“ Pahwa told ET. “I have a few venture ideas in mind. I will start working on them soon after taking a short break,“ he said, adding that he was leaving Meru due to personal reasons.
Pahwa will hand over business responsibility to Meru's chief technology officer Nilesh Sangoi on December 31, 2016.
Meru was founded by serial entrepreneur Neeraj Gupta in 2007. Four years later, the company hired Pahwa, a chartered accountant, to spearhead the company's growth.
When Pahwa joined Meru, the com pany was an asset-heavy , call centre booking-based, and a loss-making organisation. He modified the business model to 100% asset-light, improved the utilisation of assets, launched the Meru app and led regulatory changes in the taxi industry.
According to Pahwa, the Indian taxi industry in India will continue growing at 45% compound annual growth.
“Once the capital “Once the capital dumping stops, every player will make reasonable margin in this category. In the near future, some con solidation opportunities will also emerge,“ he said, adding that the industry will replace private ownership of vehicles.
In June, Meru Cabs also raised Rs150 crore in fresh funding from Brand Capital, a part of the BCCL Group, which publishes the Economic Times. Its largest investor is India Value Fund Advisors.