Yebhi ropes in former Google exec to lead marketing & product development

Fashion and lifestyle e-tailer Yebhi.com has hired Google India's former marketing head Nikhil Rungta as chief business officer. In his new role, Rungta will look after strategy, planning and execution of the company's sales, marketing and product development.

Prior to Google, Rungta was founding GM and head of marketing at Yatra Online Pvt Ltd and also worked as client servicing director at McCann Erickson India before that. At Google, he was responsible for all Google products including Search, YouTube, Chrome, Google+ and Android, among others. Rungta graduated from Delhi University and did his MBA in Marketing and International Business from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

"This is a new challenge and I am very excited as I get into this new journey. I will be teeing off with a new TV campaign based on the concept 'try and buy'. Initiated by Yebhi, the new feature 'Try n Buy' will be a game-changer for the e-commerce category and will help take it to the next level," said Rungta while talking about the new value proposition the e-tailer will be offering.

Run by Big Shoe Bazaar India Pvt Ltd, Yebhi.com is a horizontal e-commerce merchant that deals in categories like apparel, accessories, home furnishings, toys, electronics and the recently added online mobile recharge. In July 2012, the company also raised $18M in Series C funding, led by Fidelity and Qualcomm Ventures.

Commenting on the new hire, CEO Manmohan Agarwal said, "We are extremely happy to welcome Nikhil to the Yebhi team. He brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge after serving leading organisations for more than 15 years. We are confident that he will have similar success at Yebhi.com."

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)