Akash Dongre, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Indus Appstore, has stepped down from the PhonePe-owned app marketplace, marking another significant leadership transition at the company that has sought to challenge the dominance of global app distribution platforms in India.
Dongre announced his departure in a LinkedIn post, describing the decision as “one of the hardest goodbyes” of his professional journey. His exit comes more than a decade after he co-founded Indus OS alongside Rakesh Deshmukh and Sudhir Bangarambandi in 2013, laying the foundation for what would later evolve into Indus Appstore.
His departure follows a broader pattern of leadership changes at the company. In January 2024, fellow co-founder Rakesh Deshmukh stepped down as CEO ahead of the official launch of Indus Appstore, leaving Dongre and CTO Sudhir Bangarambandi to continue driving the platform’s growth.
Dongre has been one of the most visible faces behind Indus Appstore’s vision. As CPO and co-founder, he consistently advocated for a more localized and developer-friendly app ecosystem, arguing that Indian developers had long depended on a single dominant app distribution platform.
Before becoming Indus Appstore, the company operated as Indus OS, an Indian-language-focused mobile platform that aimed to make smartphones more accessible for non-English-speaking users. The startup was acquired by PhonePe in 2022, giving the fintech giant a foothold in the app marketplace space and setting the stage for a larger challenge to Google and Apple’s app store dominance.
Following the acquisition, Dongre played a central role in transforming the company from an app discovery platform into a full-fledged Android app marketplace.
