Akash Dongre, co-founder of PhonePe-owned Indus Appstore, has stepped down from the corporate after greater than a decade, marking the departure of the final remaining founding father of the enterprise.

Dongre introduced his exit in a LinkedIn submit on Tuesday, almost 4 years after PhonePe acquired Indus OS, the Indian app discovery platform he helped set up in 2013 alongside Rakesh Deshmukh and Sudhir Bangarambandi.

His departure follows these of Deshmukh, who left in December 2023, and Bangarambandi, who exited in Could 2025.

“The 4 years have been among the many most rewarding of my profession, working alongside among the sharpest product, engineering and enterprise minds I’ve recognized, inside one in every of India’s most essential client expertise corporations,” Dongre wrote.

He mentioned he deliberate to take time to “pause, recharge and replicate” earlier than deciding on his subsequent transfer.

“I do not know precisely what comes subsequent. However I do know this: I like constructing. And I’ve a sense one other chapter is not far off,” he added.

Based as Indus OS in 2013, the corporate targeted on growing expertise merchandise tailor-made to Indian customers, significantly by way of regional language help and native content material discovery. It partnered with smartphone maker Micromax in 2015 earlier than increasing throughout a number of handset manufacturers.

In accordance with Dongre, Indus OS grew to become India’s second-largest cellular working system by shipments in 2016. The corporate later shifted its focus to the app market enterprise and partnered with Samsung in 2019 to broaden its attain.

PhonePe acquired the corporate in July 2022 following a protracted authorized dispute. It was subsequently rebranded as Indus Appstore and formally launched in February 2024 as a home various to Google’s Play Retailer, providing help for 12 Indian languages along with English.

Reflecting on the corporate’s progress, Dongre highlighted a number of milestones, together with the launch of Indus Appstore at Bharat Mandapam in February 2024, a partnership with Xiaomi India in March 2025, and the platform surpassing 150 million customers.

As a part of its enlargement, Indus Appstore secured agreements with smartphone producers together with Xiaomi, Motorola and Alcatel. Below its cope with Xiaomi, {the marketplace} was pre-installed on gadgets bought in India and changed Xiaomi’s current GetApps retailer on supported handsets.

Dongre mentioned the platform would proceed beneath new management.

PhonePe, which is backed by Walmart, has been getting ready for a inventory market itemizing however paused its deliberate preliminary public providing in March 2026, citing market volatility and geopolitical tensions, together with the battle in West Asia.