Flipkart top exec quits; To head operations in cab rental firm Olacabs

Mumbai-based startup ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, who runs the online cab rental service under the brand Olacabs, has announced the appointment of Maneesh Mittal as vice-president – operations. Prior to joining Olacabs, Mittal was VP (operations) at Flipkart, one of the biggest e-commerce ventures in India.

In his new role, Mittal will be responsible for building a superior operations unit that will help in effective allocation of cabs and intricate co-ordination between management and technology. Speaking about his new position, Mittal said, "I am very happy to be a part of Olacabs. While the role is challenging, I look forward to growing the business and providing customers with seamless and comfortable service."

A B.Tech from IIT Delhi, Mittal had played a key role in building Flipkart's operations and logistics division. Although he joined the e-commerce firm as a general manager in September 2009, he went on to become AVP (warehousing) and was finally elevated to VP last year (more on people who run Flipkart). Before that, Mittal was an entrepreneur himself.

Commenting on the appointment, Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Olacabs said, "We at Olacabs plan to expand to 10 cities by the end of this year and have been looking to hire top talents at all levels in the organisation. We are very happy to have Maneesh on board as he brings in the experience of building a top class operations unit in a startup."

Founded in 2010 by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Olacabs has already raised two rounds of funding – an angel round from Anupam Mittal, Rehan Yar Khan, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal (of Snapdeal) and a recent Series A funding from Tiger Global. The company has also launched its Android platform, which will be followed by iOS and BlackBerry apps.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)