MUMBAI: Snapdeal has announced the appointment of Housing.com’s CEO Jason Kothari as its chief strategy and investment officer.
He will work alongside co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in this key leadership role and will be joining Snapdeal on 16 January. As chief strategy and investment officer for Snapdeal, Kothari’s responsibilities will include leading strategy; corporate development, including all investments and strategic partnerships; raising new capital for the Company; and portfolio management, overseeing companies Snapdeal wholly owns or has invested in.
Most recently, Kothari was the CEO of Softbank-backed online real estate company Housing.com, where he led the successful turnaround of the Company from a position of distress to a market leader in one and a half years using organic and inorganic growth.
Under his stewardship, Housing.com changed its business strategy and plan, hired a new experienced management team, restructured and reduced operating costs by 70 per cent going from 2,500 to 900 employees, raised an additional $20 million from lead investor Softbank, and achieved key operating results, such as increasing revenue by 400 per cent, customer visits by 200 per cent to 4.1 million per month and homes listed by 450% to 630,000 homes, becoming the most popular platform for buying and selling homes in the country.
Prior to joining Housing.com, Kothari was the CEO and vice chairman of character-based entertainment company Valiant Entertainment, where he led the successful acquisition out of bankruptcy, and turnaround of the Company resulting in a record return in the industry and media recognition calling the Company “Marvel 2.0”.
Snapdeal co-founder and CEO said, “Jason is a strong business leader & entrepreneur who has already been the CEO of two successful companies. Rohit and I warmly welcome Jason to the Snapdeal family and believe we will achieve even greater heights with his addition.”
Kothari said, “I’m excited to join Snapdeal which is on its way to building one of India’s best companies, and I look forward to helping in making that potential a reality.”
