Snapdeal names former Nokia honcho Vishal Chadha as veep for market development

E-commerce major Snapdeal.com, run by Delhi-based Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, has appointed Vishal Chadha as vice president for market development. In the new role, Chadha will spearhead the company's business development and seller marketing efforts, with an aim to bring a million merchants to its platform.

A MBA from IIM Lucknow, Chadha has over 18 years of experience in verticals like strategy, sales and distribution, retail, marketing, competence development and business planning & processes. In the past, he held various key positions at Nokia UK, where he was the global director heading multi brand retail marketing; Nokia India where he headed sales for its multimedia business group and retail & customer marketing; and Britannia, where he was the sales head of the western region in India.

Prior to joining Snapdeal.com, he worked as an advisor with Samsung India's mobile & IT business "E-commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country today and Snapdeal has been successful in revolutionising online shopping in India," said Chadha.

"Vishal comes with a rich experience in leadership roles across industries and I am sure his vast experience will add tremendous value and further fuel our vision of getting a million businesses online," said Rohit Bansal, co-founder of Snapdeal.

Founded in 2010, Snapdeal was started as an online deals site, which later pivoted to a full-fledged horizontal e-commerce company with a marketplace model in September 2011. It has now become one of the fastest growing and among the top three online marketplaces in India, with more than 25 million registered users and more than 50,000 vendors.

In October, Japanese telecom and internet firm SoftBank Corp committed $627 million (Rs 3,846 crore) in Snapdeal.com. Its other investors include eBay, Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Ratan Tata, BlackRock, Temasek, Myriad Asset Management, Tybourne Capital, PremjiInvest and Saama Capital.