Excitel Broadband has appointed Varun Pasricha as its Chief Executive Officer, effective March 2026. He has been serving as Chief Operating Officer since 2018 and has now taken over the top role as the company has entered a new phase of expansion.
The company has been ranked as India’s fourth-largest fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network and has been serving close to one million households across more than 50 cities and towns. With this leadership transition, Excitel has moved to strengthen its fibre footprint and partner-led expansion model across India.
In his new role, Pasricha has been tasked with scaling fiber infrastructure, enhancing service quality, strengthening cable operator partnerships, and accelerating customer acquisition across existing and new markets. Over the past eight years, he has led network rollout, partner management, city expansion and service delivery functions, helping the company scale operations while maintaining cost efficiencies and customer retention.
Before joining Excitel in 2018, Pasricha has held leadership and strategy roles at Zomato, G4S, Max Healthcare and Indus Towers, where he has gained experience in operations, growth strategy and organisational scaling.
Pasricha has succeeded Vivek Raina, Co-Founder and CEO, who has stepped down after leading the company since 2015. Raina has stated that he will continue to support the company as a shareholder.
As Excitel has entered its next growth phase, it has continued to prioritise fiber network expansion, partner enablement and customer satisfaction as part of its broadband strategy in India.
“Varun has been central to Excitel’s operating discipline and partner ecosystem, and he is well suited to lead the company forward,” said Nikolai Gorchilov, Co-Founder, Excitel Broadband
“Victor Francess, Plamen Petkov and I have built internet businesses across Europe and India, and our next priority is to make Excitel not just affordable, but a loved brand – by pushing quality and customer service to the centre of everything we do. Our partner-led model remains the backbone for scale, and we will keep strengthening systems that improve reliability and the customer experience across our footprint.”
“Excitel was built on the belief that high-speed, unlimited internet should be accessible and affordable for every Indian household. Having worked closely with our teams and partners over the years, I’ve seen the strength of the foundation we’ve created. My focus will be on building stronger systems, elevating customer experience, empowering our partner ecosystem, and driving disciplined expansion as we scale to our next milestone.”
“It has been an incredible journey building Excitel from the ground up. Over the past decade, we have expanded our fiber network to serve nearly one million users, collaborated with thousands of local and regional partners, and built a strong presence across 50+ cities and towns. I believe this is the right time for a leadership transition, and I am confident that the Founders’ vision and Varun’s operational expertise will take Excitel to even greater heights. I will continue to support Excitel as a shareholder, and I’m excited to explore new challenges in the future.”
