Meru Cabs CEO Siddhartha Pahwa calls it quits

After a five-year run at India’s first taxi aggregator, Meru Cabs chief executive officer Siddhartha Pahwa has called it quits.

"I have spent a good five years at Meru. It is now a stable organization with cash break-even and is growing profitably," Pahwa told ET.

Saying that he was leaving Meru due to personal reasons, Pahwa added, "I have a few venture ideas in mind. I will start working on them soon after taking a short break.”

Founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneur Neeraj Gupta, Pahwa joined Meru in 2011 when it was an asset-heavy, call centre booking-based and a loss-making organization. But soon, Pahwa changed the course for the company transforming it to 100 percent asset-light, improved the utilization of assets, launched the Meru app and led regulatory changes in the taxi industry.

Pahwa will be handing over all his business responsibilities to Meru's chief technology officer Nilesh Sangoi on December 31, 2016.

Pahwa believes that the Indian taxi industry in India will continue growing at 45 percent compound annual growth.

"Once the capital dumping stops, every player will make reasonable margin in this category. In the near future, some consolidation opportunities will also emerge," he said, adding that the industry will replace private ownership of vehicles.