Quikr co-founder Jiby Thomas quits company to start new internet venture

Jiby Thomas, co-founder of online classifieds venture Quikr.com and earlier the firm's vice-president for marketing, is leaving the company. The news was first reported by Medianama.

Sources told Techcircle.in that he had resigned over differences with the management and last week, he had informed the board of his intentions to leave the company.

Quikr co-founder & CEO Pranay Chulet confirmed the development but declined to comment whether there were differences within the top management team. When contacted by Techcircle, Thomas said, "I don't have differences with Pranay. I just spoke to him recently."

Thomas went on to say, "I am taking a break after 17 years of working. After that, I will start my new internet venture. I will be using my marketing expertise and you will see something there soon."

When asked if he would be in touch with Quikr.com, Thomas said, "I have moved on and I don't think they will miss me. I continue to hold my shares in Quikr like any other employee. Quikr now has a good management team and they can do without me."

Given that he was a part of the marketing team, his exit could not have come at a worse time. Quikr is focusing heavily on marketing and using the bulk of its recently raised funds for mass media campaigns.

Quikr.com is a free classifieds site with 26 million visitors per month. Thomas and Chulet had co-founded Quikr in 2008 as Kijiji India where Thomas was head of operations. Kijiji.in was re-branded as Quikr.com with more investors coming in.

Till date, the firm has raised $50 million in five rounds of funding from investors Warburg Pincus, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners India, Nokia Growth Partners, Omidyar Network and eBay.

Also see:

There aren't many viable biz models in the online classifieds space in India: Quikr's Pranay Chulet Local approach is the right way to go for classifieds biz: Quikr's Pranay Chulet

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)