Exclusive: Former Valuefirst CEO Kumar Apoorv has joined Way2SMS and 160by2 as its Group CEO, Medianama has learnt from multiple internal and industry sources with whom Apoorv has been in touch for business partnerships. When we contacted Way2SMS founder VV Raju for a confirmation, he said he is busy and will call back later. We have texted him requesting a confirmation regarding Apoorv's designation and he is yet to respond since. Apoorv had quit Valuefirst in September 2012 after a four year stint with the company. Its worth noting that that during his time at ValueFirst, the company had made several acquisitions which includes Way2SMS & 160by2 in May 2012. The deal however fell through after ValueFirst filed an FIR against Apoorv, alleging a fraud of Rs 7 crore in the Way2SMS acquisition. In January 2013, Valuefirst CEO Vishwadeep Bajaj had told MediaNama that an out of court settlement was reached with Way2SMS, by virtue of which promoters of Way2SMS had got possession of the business, while ValueFirst had gotten its money back. Way2SMS founder VV Raju had told MediaNama that the deal had been reversed and they had got the company back. He had also mentioned that all the cases between the companies have either been disposed off or withdrawn. As of January 2012, Way2SMS and 160by2 were together adding a combined 25,000 registrations a day, and claimed 95% marketshare of the P2P online SMS business, with around 33 million registered users. However, there has been no updates on how the company has been performing since then.
