Cleartrip appoints former Quikr executive Manoj Sharma as CTO

Mumbai-based Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd, an online aggregator of hotels, flights and train bookings, has hired former Quikr technology head Manoj Sharma as its chief technology officer, a company statement said.

Sharma’s appointment will help Cleartrip focus more on automation, wherein it can deploy machine learning and artificial intelligence-driven solutions and develop value-driven systems for its next phase of growth, the statement added.

An electrical engineer by qualification, Sharma has over 20 years of experience in product engineering, where he has worked in startups across social media, social gaming, and e-commerce in the US and India. Prior to joining Cleartrip, he led the technology vertical at online classifieds platform Quikr. His other stints include social networking website MySpace, games developer Zynga, and eyewear retailer Lenskart.

“At Cleartrip, I am looking at investing resources towards increasing sales and optimising user experience to provide a cutting-edge experience to Cleartrip customers. The leadership at Cleartrip is committed to accelerating the pace of the company’s growth, and I look forward to being a part of that mission by leveraging my experience,” Sharma said in the statement.

Founded in 2006 by Stuart Brighton, Hrush Bhatt and Matthew Spacie (not with the company anymore), Cleartrip offers a platform for booking hotels, flights and trains. In 2016, it launched Cleartrip Local, a platform that offers curated activities and experiences. The company, which competes with MakeMyTrip and Yatra, has raised over $70 million from Concur Technologies, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DAG Ventures and Gund Investment Corporation.

In July 2017, the company hired former TCS executive Indroneel Dutt as its chief financial officer. At that time, the company said that it planned to invest in technologies such as data science, machine learning, and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). To that end, it went on a hiring spree, aiming to strengthen its tech team by 50%. It also said it will deploy teams towards seeding new technology platforms such as trust and safety, data, and mobile web (progressive web apps).