Akash Dongre, the last remaining co-founder at Indus Appstore, has stepped down nearly four years after PhonePe acquired Indus OS. His exit comes at a time when the homegrown app marketplace is trying to deepen its presence through smartphone partnerships and a wider India-first distribution push.
Akash Dongre, co-founder and chief product officer of Indus Appstore, is leaving the PhonePe-owned mobile app marketplace, marking another senior founder exit from the company.
Dongre’s departure comes nearly four years after PhonePe acquired Indus OS, the indigenous Android content and app discovery platform that later became the base for Indus Appstore. He was the last remaining co-founder at the company, after Rakesh Deshmukh stepped down in December 2023 and Sudhir Bangarambandi left in May 2025.
In a LinkedIn post, Dongre described the last four years as “among the most rewarding” of his career. He said he had worked with some of the sharpest product, engineering and business minds inside “one of India’s most important consumer technology companies.”
He has not announced his next role yet. For now, Dongre said he is taking time to “pause, recharge and reflect.” He added that while he does not know exactly what comes next, he still loves building and feels “another chapter isn’t far off.”
A key exit during Indus Appstore’s expansion phase
The exit of Dongre from Indus Appstore becomes important in this context, owing to the fact that Indus Appstore is still a nascent entity in terms of scaling. The platform was launched by PhonePe in February 2024 as an indigenous substitute for Google Play Store.
The app store is currently available through the company’s website, where users can download and manually install it on their smartphones. That distribution model has been gradually strengthened through device-maker partnerships.
In March 2025, PhonePe announced a multi-year alliance with Xiaomi India to pre-install Indus Appstore on devices sold in the country. Under the agreement, Xiaomi also replaced its app marketplace GetApps with Indus Appstore on existing devices.
PhonePe has also tied up with Motorola and Alcatel to make Indus Appstore available on their devices. Dongre said in his post that the app marketplace now has over 150 million users in India.
From Indus OS to Indus Appstore
PhonePe acquired Indus OS in July 2022 after a prolonged legal battle. The acquisition gave the Walmart-owned digital payments company a deeper presence in India’s app discovery and distribution ecosystem.
Indus Appstore later emerged as PhonePe’s attempt to build a local app marketplace at a time when Indian developers and digital companies have been increasingly discussing platform fees, app distribution control and alternatives to dominant global app stores.
While Dongre’s departure does not change the product’s existing partnerships, it closes an important founder-led chapter for Indus Appstore. The company will now move ahead without any of its original co-founders in active leadership.
PhonePe’s larger backdrop
The leadership change also comes during a period of wider strategic movement at PhonePe. The company deferred its IPO process in March 2025, citing market volatility and geopolitical conflicts, including the West Asia war.
For Indus Appstore, the issue is still crystal clear: turning deals into sustained user and developer engagements. Having more than 150 million users and pre-installed partnerships with major mobile phone brands, the platform has succeeded in building its footprint. The real question is whether it can become a recurring place for finding apps in India’s Android market.
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