Ambreesh Murty, founder of the online furniture and home décor brand Pepperfry has died of cardiac arrest while on a trip to Leh. He was 51. A graduate of Delhi School of Engineering and Indian Institute of Management Kolkata, Murty’s was one of India’s most high-profile start-up success stories. Pepperfry, which has pioneered the concept of furniture display outlets (where you can view products and then order on the Net) in airports and in major cities, including Ahmedabad. It is one of the most recognised Indian brands of the digital age.
Murty began his career as a management trainee with Cadbury India in 1966 and then moved to ICICI Prudential and then to Levi’s Strauss. He left Levi’s in 2003 to start a venture called Origin Source that provided financial training for asset management. The venture did not quite take off and Murty returned to corporate life in 2005, joining Britannia as marketing manager in 2005. Seven months later, he switched to eBay India, where he rose to the position of Country Manager in two years.
At eBay, Murty met Ashish Shah, with whom he founded Pepperfry in 2012. Headquartered in Mumbai, Pepperfry has been valued at $500 million, with $244 in investment from the likes of Goldman Sachs and Bertelsmann India. The company registered an operating revenue of Rs 247 crore for FY22, up from Rs 201 crore in FY21.
Always accessible to the media, Murty was a spokesperson for the Indian start-up industry. For a while he served as the vice chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India.
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