Former Goibibo executive joins Zoomcar as vice president of engineering

In a bid to strengthen its top management, Bengaluru-based self-drive car rental platform Zoomcar has appointed Markish Arun as vice president of engineering. 

The role puts him in charge of all engineering initiatives and team-building exercises at the company, a statement said.

Arun earlier co-founded hotel management platform Magicrooms, which was acquired by Yatra in 2011. He later co-founded travel management app Trip38.com with Niranjan Gupta and Sheshadri Krishnan. He has 20 years of experience and has previously worked with Goibibo and Makemytrip, where he led the supply-side engineering and product initiatives.

“Cutting edge technology has always been our priority and Markish’s appointment will further our already dominant lead on the technical platform side,” Greg Moran, CEO and co-founder of Zoomcar said. 

“The kind of market, demand, and value proposition that Zoomcar has created across the country is commendable. I look forward to further enhancing the brand’s market trajectory with my contributions,” Arun said.

The appointment comes a month after the company announced its expansion plans in India. Zoomcar aims to deploy 100,000 vehicles on the road in 18-24 months and improve its technology and data science operations.

Last month, the company secured $100 million from Sony Corporation following the $40 million Series C funding raised from domestic carmarker Mahindra & Mahindra in February 2018. 

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India, Ford Motor Company, Nokia Growth Partners and Silicon Valley Bank are among the company’s other investors.

At last count, Zoomcar said it had 10,000 cars in its fleet with a subscription run rate at 15,000 in the quarter ended September. The company operates in 45 cities and has a staff strength of 250.