FreeCharge ropes in Ninad Takpere from TimesDeal as chief business development officer

Mumbai-based Accelyst Solutions Pvt Ltd, the company behind the online recharge FreeCharge.in, an online recharge platform, has appointed Ninad Takpere as its chief business development officer. In the new role, Takpere will look at growing Freecharge's business around couponing & promotions space.

"Ninad has built businesses around coupons from scratch and has seen various business models. With his leadership, we can further consolidate our unique positioning in the market and take it to next level," said Alok Goel, CEO of FreeCharge.

Takpere has over 14 years of experience in digital medium and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry. Prior to joining FreeCharge, Takpere was business head of TimesDeal, a couponing venture owned by Times Internet Ltd. Previously, he was national sales head at Rediff.com. In the past, he had also worked at companies including Reliance Life Insurance, GE Money and Cafe Network.

Takpere holds a BE degree in mechanical engineering from Shivaji University (Maharashtra).

FreeCharge is a platform that provides pre-paid mobile recharging services to consumers. The firm has partnered with various telecom companies including Vodafone, Airtel, Loop, Reliance, Idea, DOCOMO, Tata Indicom, S-Tel, Aircel, BSNL and more.

For every recharge done on the site, Freecharge gives customers discount coupons from various food joints and retailers, equivalent to the recharge amount which will be delivered to their mobile phones, e-mail or at their doorsteps. These coupons can be used to save money when they eat out, watch movies, book travel tickets, shop online, visit a salon, go gaming, and pick up books, music and groceries. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, which had infused Rs 20 crore into the firm in January 2012.

Recently, FreeCharge acquire-hired a stealth mode startup called Preburn, which provides an offline app store for user acquisition wherein apps are distributed through mobile retail stores.

In April this year, Deap Ubhi, COO of FreeCharge.in, had quit the firm to join Amazon US.