Truecaller appoints LinkedIn's Tejinder Gill as India head

Caller identification app Truecaller has hired Tejinder Gill, former national sales manager of LinkedIn, as its vice president of sales and head of India operations.

Gill will build monetisation strategies and run the India operations, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. He replaces Kari Krishnamurthy, who will be moving to the company's Stockholm head office to lead global brand initiatives.

Gill had been a part of the core leadership team of LinkedIn in India since 2010. He has also worked with Yahoo India, where he headed sales at verticals such as auto, consumer durables and technology.

"Given our success in the mobile ads, developer and overall product experience, we were looking to accelerate our growth pace in India. He brings extensive multi-faceted expertise which will be of great value to our company in driving the India strategy and providing meaningful solutions for our stakeholders," said Nami Zarringhalam, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Truecaller, in the statement.

India is the largest market for the Scandinavian company; the country accounts for nearly two-thirds of the company's 150 million users globally. Its other major markets include the Middle East, North Africa and the US.

According to a study conducted last year by WhichApp, a mobile app that helps users discover new applications that their friends use, Truecaller figures among the top five apps used by Indians.

Besides the Truecaller app that identifies callers, the company also offers a product which verifies senders of text messages and another that identifies unknown numbers in the call history. The flagship product, Truecaller, is available on all main mobile operating systems and platforms. It makes money through in-app purchases for premium features besides advertising within the app.

Truecaller was founded in 2009 by Zarringhalam and Alan Mamedi. The company's investors include Sequoia Capital, Atomico and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.

In June this year, former Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin picked up a stake in the company for an undisclosed amount.