Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has appointed Sachin Dalal to head its operations in India, reports The Economic Times. It stated that Dalal had joined the company earlier this month. Earlier, Dalal was the Co-founder of Infibeam, an e-commerce company, and was looking after operations and product at Infibeam. He has around 13 years of experience in E-commerce Technology & Operations, Large Scale Distributed Systems and Payments systems. Rakuten is likely to start its marketplace operations next year and Dalal will be putting together a team in India. It had set up a Global Development and Operations Center in Bangalore in June 2014, after announcing its plans to enter the Indian market in April 2014. The company also announced that it will focus investment in the e-commerce marketplaces of France and Germany due to their potential for substantial growth. However, it plans to close the operations in the UK, Spain and Austria regions. Past investments - In March 2015, Rakuten had invested in Lyft, for 11.9% stake in the San Francisco-based ride-sharing app. - In Septemeber 2014, it acquired San Francisco-based online cash back company Ebates Inc for $1 billion, which deals with US retailers. - In February 2014, Rakuten had acquired Viber, an internet telephony and messaging company, for $900 million.
