IndiaProperty.com ropes in former eBay India chief Muralikrishnan B as COO

Chennai-based India Property Online Pvt Ltd, which runs IndiaProperty.com, an online platform for listing, buying and selling residential properties, has appointed former eBay exec Muralikrishnan B as its chief operating officer (COO). In his new role, Muralikrishnan will be responsible for end-to-end customer experience including product management, customer support, marketing, besides operations and data analytics.

Commenting on the appointment, Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO, IndiaProperty, said, "Muralikrishnan's cross functional domain experience in the consumer internet space will supercharge our efforts in delivering an unmatched property buying experience for our customers."

"I am excited with the opportunity at IndiaProperty to redefine the way Indians research and buy what is potentially their most significant purchase," added Muralikrishnan.

Muralikrishnan has 17 years of cross functional experience across FMCG and consumer internet domains. Prior to IndiaProperty, he co-founded Almond Wellness Tech Pvt Ltd, a startup in the digital wellness space. Before that, he was the country manager of eBay India. He joined eBay India in 2005 and took over as country manager in 2011 from Ambareesh Murthy, who had quit the company to set up lifestyle e-com venture Pepperfry.com.

He had earlier also worked at companies like Tata Communications, Sify Ltd, and Asian Paints. An IIM Calcutta alumnus, he also holds a BE degree in mechanical engineering from Osmania University.

Launched in 2006, IndiaProperty.com offers property marketing solutions serving builders, real estate agents and home owners to sell or rent their properties, while offering a feature-rich interface for property buyers to search and identify properties that match their requirement. The company was founded by Murugavel Janakiraman who also founded Matrimony.com, an online matrimony classified platform in India.

The portal offers over 700,000 property listings and claims to have a registered user base of over 5 million users. It further claims that more than 8,000+ builders and agents are using the platform to market properties.

In December last year, the company had raised $12 million in series B funding led by Bertelsmann India Investments, the investment arm of German media giant Bertelsmann. Existing investors Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund also participated in the round. As part of the investment, Pankaj Makkar, MD of Bertelsmann India Investments, had joined the board of IndiaProperty.

IndiaProperty was formerly a part of Matrimony.com (earlier known as Consim Info), which runs a string of matrimony-related sites including BharatMatrimony.com, EliteMatrimony.com and Matrimony Directory, among others. However, it (IndiaProperty) was demerged last year and later raised fresh capital of around of $7 million from Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund.