Groupon promotes Ankur Warikoo to APAC emerging markets head, elevates India team

Daily deals site Groupon has expanded the role of the team at Groupon India who will be now entrusted with additional responsibilities dealing with growth in the key emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region including India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. As part of the reshuffle, Ankur Warikoo, CEO of Groupon India, has been promoted as head of Groupon APAC Emerging Markets (APAC-EM). In addition, Bharath Devanathan, previously the COO of Groupon India, and Sumeet Kapur, CFO of Groupon India, have been promoted to COO and regional finance director, respectively, for APAC-EM.

Commenting on the appointments, Joel Neoh, international vice-president of Groupon APAC, said, "India is a key market for Groupon and has been one of the fastest growing countries in the APAC region. The leadership team in India has played an important role in making Groupon the industry leader within a period of two years. This reorganisation will make us work closer, tighter and more unified in the APAC."

Prior to joining Groupon, Warikoo worked with companies like Rocket Internet GmbH Accentium Web (a consumer internet company he also co-founded), A.T. Kearney and NIS Sparta. He holds an MBA degree in finance from the Indian School of Business and an MS degree in Physics and Statistics from Michigan State University. Devanathan had earlier worked at Booz & Company and Yahoo, and holds a BE in Computer Science from BMS College of Engineering.

Kapur earlier worked at KPMG India and also co-founded Topper Learning Solutions Pvt Ltd, an education company. He holds a CA degree from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and a B.Com degree from Delhi University.

Groupon acquired its India unit SoSasta.com in early 2011 and re-christened it to Crazeal.com later in the year. In October 2012, the company rebranded its India operations again and moved to a new domain called Groupon.co.in. Last month, the company announced an exclusive partnership with offline electronics retail chain Croma (from the house of Tata) to launch a gadget microsite that would feature deals and offers on Croma's inventory of electronics.

In India, the company competes with the likes of Smile Group's DealsAndYou.com, Times Internet's Timesdeal.com, Mydala.com (backed by Info Edge) and Rediff DEAL ho jaye, among others.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)