Simplilearn appoints Mark Moran as CMO to crack US market

Bengaluru-based Simplilearn.com, an online education and training destination for professional certification courses, has appointed Mark Moran as its chief marketing officer in San Francisco as the company looks to strengthen its global operations and expands its presence in the US market.

Reporting to CEO Krishna Kumar from Simplilearn's US headquarters, Moran will oversee the marketing initiatives, communications, and go-to-market efforts, the company said in a press statement.

"Mark's experience across leading internet companies and strong track record of driving effective marketing efforts will be highly valuable to Simplilearn. In this phase of our growth, we look forward to his guidance in elevating the Simplilearn brand globally, across enterprises and individual professionals," Kumar said.

Previously, Moran had headed marketing at Ebates, a cash-back shopping website, and held executive positions with property management software solutions provider RealPage and Wells Fargo, the biggest US bank by stock market value, among others. An angel investor and startup adviser, Moran holds a BA from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Simplilearn had hired Anand Narayanan, former product leader at cloud infrastructure provider Rackspace, as vice president of product and engineering in March this year.

Owned and operated by Simplilearn Solutions Pvt. Ltd, the ed-tech startup was founded by Kumar, a graduate in electronics and communication engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka.

The company offers courses both online and in classroom workshops. The company claims that since its inception in 2010, it has certified more than 500,000 people globally. With study centres across the globe, Simplilearn offers certification courses in project management, Big Data and analytics, virtualisation and cloud, IT service management, Microsoft certification, quality management, and financial management, among others.

In September this year, Venture debt firm InnoVen Capital India Pvt. Ltd had has agreed to provide loans of $6 million (around Rs 40 crore) to Simplilearn.

Last year, it had secured $15 million in a Series C round of funding led by early-stage investor Mayfield, with participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital and Helion Venture Partners.

Simplilearn had secured around $10 million in a Series B round of funding in September 2013 from Helion Venture Partners and existing investor Kalaari Capital. Previously, it had bagged around $2 million in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital (erstwhile IndoUS Venture Partners) in August 2012.