Movers And Shakers of The Week [20-25 Jan]

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

While Softbank-backed OYO confirmed that 1,200 employees were laid off from its total workforce of 12,000 employees in India, multiple sources close to the development told Inc42 that over 3,000 employees have been impacted in the current round, with more to follow in the next few months.

In North India alone, over 1,000 employees have been let go in the most recent layoffs this week, according to sources in the company’s HQ in Gurugram.

Here’s a look at the other important movers and shakers of the week

SoftBank Appoints Manoj Kohli

SoftBank has appointed Manoj Kohli as India’s head. Kohli, who comes with more than 40 years of experience, will be in charge of government relations and public policy efforts. In his new role, Kohli will be supporting SoftBank, SoftBank Vision Fund, and the banking giant’s portfolio companies’ interests in India.

Kohli is expected to help secure necessary approval for the smooth functioning of the company’s operations. He was formerly the managing director and CEO of Bharti Airtel.

Kohli has done his masters in business administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He also holds a degree in law.

SoftBank Vision Fund was set up in 2017 with a total corpus of $100Bn. Most of this vision fund was raised from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. The company has invested around $10 Bn so far in Indian startups.

Facebook India Announces New Marketing Head

Social media giant Facebook has appointed Avinash Pant as the marketing director at Facebook India. The role of a marketing director is a new one at Facebook India. Pant will help in the company’s consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Pant comes with twenty-two years of experience working with leading consumer brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, The Walt Disney Company, and most recently, Red Bull. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and will report to Ajit Mohan, vice president and managing director of Facebook India.

RBS India Appoints Punit Sood

RBS India, the technology and operations hub of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), announced the appointment of Punit Sood as the head of RBS India. In this role, Punit will build the organisation’s strategic capabilities.

Prior to this, Punit had held the role of head of technology at RBS India, where he shaped the India technology business to function as a centre of excellence for RBS.

With close to three decades of rich experience in Fortune 100 companies, Punit was the CIO of JPMorgan. He has also held key positions at Citibank, Mphasis, and GE Capital Services.

RBS is a UK-based banking and financial services company, headquartered in Edinburgh. RBS provides a wide range of products and services to personal, commercial and large corporate, and institutional customers.

Brainly Appoints Rajesh Bysani

New-York based edtech platform Brainly has appointed Rajesh Bysani as the chief product officer (CPO). In his role as the CPO, Bysani will be responsible for driving the team to build products in the line.

Prior to joining Brainly, Bysani has a professional experience of over 15 years, working with both established and emerging companies across diverse profiles. He was the mobile transformation lead at Google, CPO at Zoomcar, AVP of product and growth at FreeCharge, and a core part of early product teams at redBus and BookMyShow.

Founded in 2009 by Michal Borkowski, Lukasz Haluch, and Tomasz Kraus, Brainly uses the community approach for its edtech platform. In simple terms, it creates a community of students who can seek each other’s help in addressing questions across school subjects.

Chirag Taneja Joins Bombay Shaving Company

New Delhi-based skincare startup Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has onboarded Chirag Taneja as chief revenue officer (CRO) in its bid to strengthen its online presence. Taneja will lead the entire online business including D2C technology, ecommerce, and branding for Bombay Shaving Company.

Prior to this, Taneja was the founder and CEO of Ketchupp, an online metasearch engine for food discovery, which was acquired by Cartoq.

Launched in June 2016, Bombay Shaving Company is a men’s skincare brand that offers products across skin, beard and bath categories.

Udemy Strengthens Leadership Team

Edtech platform Udemy has appointed Prasad Gune as the senior vice president of product. At his new role, Gune will lead the company’s product management, design, and UX research teams.

Prasad brings strategic product leadership skills and a wealth of knowledge and experience on marketplace and enterprise offerings. Prasad holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Udemy has also appointed Lydia Ventura Paterson to the board of directors of the company. Paterson is the Chief Financial Officer for OLX Group. Lydia brings with her over 20 years of corporate and operational finance experience formed at high-growth global consumer technology companies, including PayPal and eBay.

Udemy is an online learning destination that helps students, companies, and governments gain the skills they need to compete in today’s economy.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Movers and Shakers of the week!