Ecommerce marketplace Snapdeal has appointed Housing.com CEO Jason Kothari as its Chief Strategy and Investment Officer. Kothari will report to co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and will be joining the role from January 16th. At company, Kothari will lead the company’s business strategy; corporate development including all investments and strategic partnerships; raising new capital for the company; and portfolio management, overseeing companies Snapdeal wholly owns or has invested in.
Prior to the appointment, Kothari headed Housing.com as its CEO for over a year. He was appointed to the position in August 2015 following the exit of the company’s co-founder and CEO Rahul Yadav in July 2015. It’s odd that Kothari should move to Snapdeal shortly after Housing’s $55 million merger deal with PropTiger since Kothari was a Softbank appointee at Housing, after Yadav’s exit. His appointment at the ecommerce company could also mean that he was selected by Softbank at Snapdeal as well.
Prior to Housing, Kothari was the owner of Agordian Media Holdings where he worked for 2 years, before which he was the founder of Valiant Entertainment where he worked for over 8 years, according to his Linkedin profile.
Recent moves at Snapdeal
In November last year, Vijay Ghadge, the COO of Vulcan Express, Snapdeal’s logistics arm, had left the company after joining the position in July, the same year. Note that it recently opened 6 new fulfilment centres through Vulcan Express.
In May, Snapdeal-owned Freecharge had promoted its Chief Operating Officer Govind Rajan as the Chief Executive Officer, while co-founder Kunal Shah took charge as Chairman of the company. In the same month the company’s Chief Product Officer Anand Chandrasekaran put down his papers.
