Cars24 CEO Vikram Chopra admits gender gap in the company; says, 'Only 14% employees are women'

Cars24 CEO Vikram Chopra has acknowledged a significant gender imbalance within the company, revealing that women account for only 14% of its workforce in India and none currently hold director-level roles.

In a detailed post on X (formerly Twitter), Chopra said the company has 6,803 employees in India, of whom only 951 are women, highlighting the stark disparity in gender representation across the organisation.

“At Director level (B6): zero women. Not low. Zero,” Chopra wrote, acknowledging the lack of female representation in the company’s senior leadership ranks.

Chopra said he had been reflecting on the numbers for several days and admitted that the issue goes beyond hiring at the entry level.

While Cars24 has seen improvements in entry-level hiring of women, he noted that many women drop out of the organisation as they move toward mid-management and senior leadership roles.

“We do hire women. Entry-level representation is meaningfully better. But somewhere between mid-management and senior leadership, we lose them. That’s not a pipeline problem. That’s a system problem,” he said.

The CEO also emphasised that organisational culture plays a key role in shaping leadership representation.

“Culture is not what you say on your careers page. Culture is who grows here. Culture is who gets promoted. Culture is who stays,” Chopra wrote.

Acknowledging the structural challenges, Chopra said the company would begin engaging with senior women leaders from across industries to better understand the barriers preventing women from reaching leadership roles.

“So...Women’s Day, I’m doing something simple: listening,” he said.

Notably, Chopra invited women leaders working in technology, product, business and other field-heavy environments to share their perspectives on what structural changes are needed for companies like Cars24 to improve representation and leadership opportunities for women.

“What would need to be true for you to seriously consider a company like ours? What makes a leadership culture feel enabling rather than exhausting? What structural changes actually move the needle — not just on hiring, but on retention and promotion?” he asked.

The company plans to host small roundtables, both virtual and in person, with women leaders over the coming weeks to gather insights and identify areas for change.

Chopra acknowledged the responsibility for addressing the issue, stating that the lack of gender diversity in leadership requires serious internal reflection.

“We cannot build a category-defining company if leadership looks like a narrow slice of society. Talented women shouldn’t just join Cars24, they should rise here,” he wrote, adding, “This one is on me.”