Classifieds site Quikr appoints Vineet Sehgal as its CMO

Mumbai-based Quikr India Pvt Ltd, the company that owns and operates the classifieds site Quikr.com, has appointed Vineet Sehgal as its chief marketing officer (CMO). In his role, Sehgal will be responsible for the marketing strategy and plans across all areas including brand building, performance marketing, partnership and alliances at the company.

Commenting on his appointment, Pranay Chulet, founder and CEO of Quikr said, "Quikr is made in India and for India, and Sehgal has built his career scaling consumer businesses in the country so there was natural chemistry here. He knows the Indian consumer and he knows the Indian consumer on mobile."

Sehgal has over 18 years of experience in marketing and business strategy across industries such as telecommunication, FMCG, banking and management consulting. Prior to joining Quikr, he was head - portfolio, programs and planning at Nokia India. He also founded the Nokia Money startup team and drove its growth from conception to market roll out. Before that, he was head - strategy, propositions and channels, commercial banking at HSBC Bank.

He had earlier also worked at companies like Cadbury, Accenture India, and Nestle India. Sehgal holds a MBA degree in marketing and finance from IIM-Calcutta, and a B.Tech degree in chemical engineering from IIT-Delhi.

"Quikr's business is growing exponentially and it's exciting for me to be a part of this growth curve. The company has always been one of the most exciting internet brands and I look forward to further building it as Indian internet becomes more and more synonymous with mobile internet," said Sehgal.

Founded in 2008 by Chulet and Jiby Thomas, Quikr was originally started as Kijiji India. The firm later rebranded to Quikr. It is a large scale cross-category classifieds business with over 30 million consumers. These consumers come to Quikr to sell, buy, rent or find products and services in a variety of categories such as electronics and household goods, real estate, cars, bikes, jobs and services. The firm claims that small businesses across 940 cities are using the site. In July last year, its co-founder Thomas quit the firm to launch a digital marketing company called Web Butter Jam.

Last week, Quikr Mauritius Holding Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Quikr India, secured $60 million in fresh round of funding led by Tiger Global Management. The round also saw participations from its existing investors, including Matrix Partners India, Nokia Growth Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Warburg Pincus and eBay Inc, besides Swedish investment firm Investment AB Kinnevik. Kinnevik said in a separate disclosure that it infused $15 million this time around.

The latest round comes just five months after the firm announced a $90 million funding round led by Kinnevik. This funding valued the firm at around $240 million.

Quikr had previously raised $32 million in its fifth round of funding in May 2012, led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus with participation of existing investors Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners and eBay Inc. It had earlier raised $8 million in its fourth round of funding, led by Nokia Growth Partners and returning investors Norwest Venture Partners and eBay Inc.

In April 2010, the horizontal classifieds player raised $6 million in Series C, led by Norwest Venture Partners, besides Omidyar Network, Matrix Partners India and eBay Inc. In July 2009, the company raised around Rs 20 crore in Series B, led by Omidyar Network, and with commitment from Series A investor Matrix Partners.

Quikr largely competes with OLX, a Naspers Group firm.