Excitel Broadband co-founder Vivek Raina quits; says, 'I will continue to support Excitel'

Delhi NCR-based internet service provider Excitel Broadband has announced the departure of its co-founder Vivek Raina, marking the end of an association that began with the company’s founding in 2015.

In a post on LinkedIn, Raina said, “I have decided to leave Excitel Broadband, the company I co-founded and have led for the past 11 years. It has been an incredible journey building Excitel, from the ground up. Over the past decade, we have expanded our fibre network to serve nearly one million users, collaborated with thousands of local and regional partners, and built a strong presence across 50+ cities.”

He added, “I believe this is the right time for a leadership transition, and I am confident that the founders’ vision and the operational expertise of the younger management will take Excitel Broadband to even greater heights. I will continue to support Excitel as a shareholder.”

Raina said he plans to take a short break before building new businesses and business lines from scratch.

“As for me, after a short break, I will keep on doing what I think I know best i.e building new businesses/businesses lines from scratch while fostering youngsters who are involved in building new businesses through initiatives like Launchpad Kashmir,” he wrote.

Raina co-founded Excitel in 2015 along with fellow entrepreneurs including Nikolai Gorchilov, Victor Francess and Plamen Petkov.

The company transitioned fully to fibre by 2017–18 and has since focused on delivering high-speed broadband connectivity to households. According to Raina, the company has served nearly 1 Mn users across more than 50 cities.

Excitel has raised roughly $16 million in funding (figures vary slightly by tracker) from investors including NEVEQ, Impetus Capital and BlackPeak Capital.

Financially, the company reported a 24% increase in revenue to Rs 486.84 crore  in FY24. Its losses narrowed to Rs 120 crore from Rs 155.12 crore in FY23.

The leadership change comes shortly after Excitel elevated its chief operating officer, Varun Pasricha, to the role of chief executive officer, effective March 2026.

Pasricha has served as COO for over seven years and joined the company in 2018. He has around two decades of professional experience and has previously worked with companies including Zomato, G4S and Max Healthcare.

Raina continues to serve as co-founder and mentor at Launchpad Kashmir, an incubator launched in 2024 to support early-stage startups in Jammu & Kashmir.

The initiative was founded by Raina along with Vivriti Capital director Namrata Kaul, Western Digital senior director Khalid Wani and FlapKaCCO’s Kunal Harisinghani, among others.

At the time of launch, Launchpad Kashmir earmarked an undisclosed corpus to incubate 24 early-stage startups from the Union Territory by March 2025. Before co-founding Excitel, Raina held leadership roles across Digicable Network India Pvt Ltd, Hathway and Reliance Communications.

He began his career as Officer – Business Development at Hathway in 2001 and went on to serve in regional and managerial roles over a 25-year career spanning broadband, telecommunications, channel management and business strategy.