Komli Media's ex-MD joins Facebook India

Pritesh Patel, ex-managing director - India & Middle East at Komli Media has joined Facebook India as its head of FMCG vertical, according to MediaNama.

While the publication mentions that the social networking major has confirmed the news to it, last we checked, Patel's LinkedIn profile mentions that he is still working at Komli. We have contacted Patel for more information on the development, and will update the story as and when we recieve it.

This is the second big exit in Komli in the recent times. Last December, its CEO Prashant Mehta had quit the company to start his own venture. Interestingly, both the exits come in the wake of the company raising $30 million (Rs 185 crore) in its Series E funding led by Peepul Capital besides existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson in October 2013.

Patel had worked at Komli for over four years and had been made MD for India and Middle East at Komli around a year ago. As part of his role, Patel was responsible for accelerating the company's business in these markets. Prior to this promotion, he was senior director and general manager at Komli. He had also earlier worked at companies like Yahoo and BCCL.

According to the MediaNama report, Facebook was looking to expand its sales team, hiring heads for e-commerce, FMCG and retail business, and managers for agency partnerships and marketing communications. Kirthiga Reddy, director of online operations and head of India office at Facebook had also re-located to Mumbai to focus on ad agencies and big clients.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)