Movers And Shakers Of The Week [16-21 April 2018]

We bring to you the latest dope of movers and shakers in the Indian startup ecosystem in the past week.

Mudit Shekhawat Joins Yatra.com As CMO

Online travel company Yatra.com appointed Mudit Shekhawat as its Chief Marketing Officer.

With consumer marketing experience of more than 12 years in the consumer internet space, Shekhawat was earlier working with Ola as head of marketing. Prior to this, he also worked with online fashion marketplace Myntra for more than 2 years. He has also worked with Yahho and HCL in various marketing positions.

In his new role, Shekhawat will be responsible for leading marketing activities, alliances and ancillary revenues across all company’s business lines and group entities.

In addition to further strengthening Yatra’s brand positioning, he will also manage all consumer marketing initiatives across platforms to drive customer stickiness and loyalty.

Sachin Oswal Quits As Shoppers Stop Omnichannel CEO

Departmental store chain Shoppers Stop’s omnichannel retail team witnessed a rejug, following which company’s ecommerce and omnichannel CEO Sachin Oswal has quit.

Maneesh Mittal, former head of ecommerce and Big Data at Tata Group owned Croma, will replace him in the position.

“I am due leaving due to personal reasons and as part of a planned transition,” Oswal told ET. The report also quoted sources as saying that Oswal will shift to Pune and intends to take a sabbatical before his next move.

Earlier in September 2017, Amazon’s investment arm Amazon NV Holdings LLC, picked up 5% equity in ShoppersStop for $27.14 Mn (INR 179.25 Cr). Shoppers Stop has earlier said that it wants 15% of its revenues to come from the online channel.

Deepak Padaki To Lead Infosys Innovation Fund

Months after Infosys Innovation Fund managing director Yusuf Bashir left the company, Infosys has now appointed Deepak Padaki to lead the fund.

Padaki is currently executive vice-president of strategy, M&A and the chief risk officer at Infosys and has been associated with the company for last 26 years.

Infosys Innovation Fund is a $500 Mn fund by Infosys, floated in January 2015 to invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, pervasive connectedness as well as collaboration and design technologies. Under this fund, Infosys invested in Silicon Valley based early-stage venture capital firm Vertex Ventures, Bengaluru based early-stage venture capital firm Stellaris Venture Partners and nine other startups.

Venture Catalysts Appoints B.C. Bhartia To Lead Nagpur Operations

Integrated incubator Venture Catalysts launched its operations in Nagpur and appointed B.C. Bhartia, the National President of the Confederation of All India Traders, as VCats’ Nagpur Center’s Managing Partner and patron.

VCats’ has been working to uncover the latent innovation and business acumen that entrepreneurs across the country harbor. It offers end-to-end and holistic support with a vision to nurture and build a country-wide network of startups, investors, enablers, and growth facilitators.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Movers And Shakers Of The Week!