Indus Appstore's co-founder Akash Dongre has quit
What's the story
Akash Dongre, the Chief Product Officer and Co-founder of Indus Appstore, has announced his resignation from the PhonePe-owned mobile app marketplace. His departure comes nearly four years after the company's acquisition by PhonePe. Dongre was the last remaining co-founder at Indus Appstore, following Rakesh Deshmukh's exit in December 2023 and Sudhir Bangarambandi's in May 2025.
Career reflection
Dongre's reflections on his journey with Indus Appstore
In a LinkedIn post, Dongre reflected on his four-year journey with Indus Appstore. He described it as one of the most rewarding periods of his career, during which he worked with some of the best minds in product development, engineering, and business. However, he did not reveal any details about his future plans after leaving Indus Appstore.
Company history
PhonePe acquired Indus OS in July 2022
PhonePe acquired Indus OS, an Indian Android content and app discovery platform, in July 2022 after a long legal battle. The Walmart-owned digital payments company launched Indus Appstore in February 2024 as an alternative to Google Play Store. The platform supports 12 Indian languages and English. Currently, it is available for download on the company's website for manual installation on smartphones.
Usage
Over 150M users for Indus Appstore
In March 2025, PhonePe partnered with Xiaomi to pre-install Indus Appstore on devices sold in India. The deal also included replacing Xiaomi's own app marketplace GetApps with Indus Appstore on existing devices. Over the past year, PhonePe has also partnered with Motorola and Alcatel to make Indus Appstore available on their devices. According to Dongre, the app marketplace now boasts over 150 million users.