ZebPay CEO Avinash Shekhar to launch his own startup

CEO Avinash Shekhar is expected to work on his own startup, as the CEO of ZebPay's Chief Executive Officer has decided to move on. Shekhar's new startup will be operating in the space of Web 3.0 and in the crypto tax compliance space.

Shekhar will be a long-term board member and consultant for ZebPay. He started as a CFO with the start-up of cryptocurrencies in July 2017.

This development comes a month after ZebPay's Chief Financial Officer CFO Tarun Jain left the company, according to Moneycontrol quoting sources. It stated that ZebPay would also hold a minority stake in this new start-up.

Avinash will be focusing on his start-up later this year, which is in the Web 3.0 space, according to ZebPay. He will remain an advisory role on ZebPay, as a director. Rahul will continue to lead the business, going forward, because he has always been a part of the decisions at ZebPay. Some members of ZebPay's senior management have quit, and the sources in the know have revealed that some of the senior management of the criptocurrency ecosystem in India is grappling with several challenges. Pagidipati said it has mostly mid-level staff.

According to the Chairman of ZebPay, Rahul Pagidipati said Tarun was getting a CEO level position at his new company. He knew that it would be a longer path, so he moved on. Avinash was a co-captain at ZebPay, helping in the transformation of the company. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 30 per cent income tax on gains from trading in cryptocurrencies in her Union Budget speech, and a global crash in criptocurrency token valuations.

The domestic criptocurrency industry was affected by this beginning in April of this year. The industry that was already under pressure was facing another blow in the form of a 1 per cent tax deducted at source TDS on virtual asset transactions in India from July 1.

Nearly 85 - 90 percent of trading volumes at top criptocurrency exchanges -- WazirX, Zebpay, CoinDCX and Bitbns -- were wiped out between January 1 and July 14 this year, according to the data from CREBACO Global.

Several start-ups started to face a crunch, so they had to take cost-cutting measures to continue the business. ZebPay also announced company-wide pay cuts, with management taking larger cuts.

Pagidipati stated, "We are doing what we always do." This is just a part of the course, of people coming in and going out. I don't think there's any more attrition now than there was six months ago. Some companies become stronger, some die and some become zombie companies because of the bear market where 90 per cent of the corrected price is 90 per cent. Nearly half of the staff at Coinbase and Vauld had been laid off around the time of the volume crash in July. We had to make small pay cuts instead. Most of them got 6 per cent pay-cuts at ZebPay and management took a higher cut, he said.

Pagidipati said that they are looking at repositioning ZebPay as a financial advisor, almost like a bank that invests in cryptocurrencies. We will need regulations for that and I believe that will be in place in three to four years. If you are a start-up in cryptocurrencies and need help to raise capital, we can advise you on that.