Snapchat Parent Expands India Leadership Team With Key Appointments

Snap Inc, the parent of multimedia messaging app Snapchat, has made several key appointments across its India functions, which include content, partnerships, augmented reality, growth and sales. 

The move is a part of Snap’s efforts to scale up its leadership team in India.

The following is a list of employees who have been hired and their roles:

• Saket Jha Saurabh, Director of Content, Partnerships & Augmented Reality
• Chirag Kohli, Head of Growth
• Amit Ojha, India Agency Lead
• Neha Jolly Sawhney, India Sales Head
• Yagnesh Ravi, Ads Solutions Lead
• Uthara Ganesh, Head of Public Policy for India and South Asia
• Lekshmi Geetha, Head of People for India
• Rashmi Dastidar, Head of Integrity & Compliance for APAC and EMEA
• Poonam Nikam, Head Communications for India, Singapore & Japan

Among the new hires at Snap is Saurabh, who previously served as the director and head-media partnerships at Meta. Prior to that, he headed Bloomberg’s digital business and also served as the chief executive and director at Indian startup #fame, which focuses on emerging creators.

As per his LinkedIn profile, Saurabh has also marketed popular media brands CNBC and Aaj Tak, and worked with Network 18 and India Today.

The organisational overhaul comes at a time when Snap is aiming to push growth in India, one of the firm’s most critically important markets globally.

As part of its expansion efforts, Snap had appointed former Google executive Pulkit Trivedi as its India managing director last year. In 2022, Snap also hired ex-Meta executive Ajit Mohan to lead its Asia-Pacific business. 

In March, Trivedi told Inc42 that for the past few months, Snapchat has been focused on strengthening its team in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, and doubled its headcount this year.

Back then, he said the company wanted to have a larger share of India’s flourishing digital ad market, projected to more than double to over $20 Bn by 2028 from $10 Bn in 2023.

Earlier, Inc42 reported that Snapchat aims to attract Gen Z users in India with offerings like AR-based camera filters, AI-based virtual messaging, and short video content (Spotlight) which differ from its competitors.

Snap has reportedly crossed the 200 monthly active user (MAU) mark in India. In comparison, its rival Instagram boasts an MAU of 362 Mn.