Zomato-backed Cultfit appoints Naresh Krishnaswamy as its new CEO, Mukesh Bansal becomes chairman Previously, Krishnaswamy was the head of fitness services at Cultfit.

Naresh Krishnaswamy, a co-founder of Cult.fit, has been named CEO of the fitness tech startup. Co-founder and long-time CEO Mukesh Bansal has now moved on to the company's executive chairman position.

In 2018, Krishnaswamy, an engineer from IIT Madras and an MBA from IIM Calcutta, made the switch from Myntra to Curefit. He joined to lead growth at Myntra, where he was the chief revenue officer at the time. Based on his LinkedIn page, Krishnaswamy assumed the role of CEO in October of last year. But the business didn't make a formal announcement at the time.

Simultaneously, the company's top executive Shamik Sharma, who oversaw the business and technology divisions, left in January to become SVP of engineering at Nasdaq-listed software firm Atlassian. He was named to Curefit's board by Bansal in March 2021; however, he also left the position.

Several media sources claim that Bansal is in the process of raising funds for his new venture with Zomato Co-founder Mohit Gupta, in the Gen Z-focused premium fashion space.

According to reports, Bansal has been in talks with Accel and Peak XV Partners to secure USD 50 million for the venture.

Bansal founded Curefit, formerly known as Cultfit, in 2016. It most recently secured around USD 10.2 million in an expanded Series F round headed by Valecha Investments, an existing backer. He holds 10.5% equity there.

Along with Ankit Nagori, a former executive at Flipkart, Bansal has launched Cultfit. Nagori then led the cloud-kitchen firm Curefoods, which was split off from Cultfit.

In November 2021, Cult.fit turned unicorn when Deepinder Goyal-led Zomato acquired a 6.4% stake in the company in a USD 100 million deal.

Cult.fit announced laying off around 150 employees in January.

It laid off about 800 workers and closed many of its fitness centres across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.