Nikhil Rungta resigns from Google India; joins Yebhi.com

As chief business officer, Rungta will lead strategy, planning and execution of the company's sales, marketing and product development.

Google India's country marketing head, Nikhil Rungta has resigned from the company and joined Yebhi.com as chief business officer (CBO). Rungta will be responsible for leading strategy, planning and execution of the company's sales, marketing and product development. Rungta will be based in Gurgaon and will report to Manmohan Agarwal, CEO, Big Shoe Bazaar India, the brand owner of e-commerce portal Yebhi.com.

Rungta joined Google India in 2009 as country marketing head and was responsible for growing the YouTube user base in India (from 5 million to 40 million) and also making Chrome the No. 1 browser in the country. In his tenure, Google India also launched the most talked about print campaigns to promote Search and Google Chrome, the web browser. Rungta had also launched ecosystem-shaping initiatives like Get India Business Online (GIBO) and the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF).

Speaking to afaqs! about moving to a start up from a digital media giant, Rungta says that his experience at setting up Yatra gave him significant exposure in e-commerce. "My Yatra experience, coupled with my Google India experience, will help me lead Yebhi's business needs well," he adds.

According to Rungta, Yebhi looks to increase the number of users on the site and will launch a new TV campaign based on the concept of 'Try n Buy'. "The new feature 'Try n Buy' initiated by Yebhi will be the game changer for the e-commerce category and will help in taking the category to the next level," he suggests.

Agarwal says, "Nikhil brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge after serving more than 15 years with leading organisations. We are confident that he will have a similar success at Yebhi.com."

Rungta has about 15 years of work experience across sales, marketing and advertising domains. In 1998, he joined Shaw Wallace & Company as product manager and handled beer brands Royal Challenge Premium Lager and Haywards 5000.

In 2000, he moved to Contract Advertising as account supervisor and managed brand communications for NIIT. Thereafter, he switched to Dhar & Hoon Communications as account director and handled advertising and brand planning for clients such as Revlon, Real juices and Aiwa.

Later, in 2003, he joined McCann Erickson India as client servicing director and handled clients such as MasterCard and Microsoft XBOX. In 2006, he moved to Yatra.com.

E-commerce portal Yebhi currently delivers to more than 12,000 pin codes across the country and claims to have around two million registered users, with over 10 transactions a minute. The portal aims to expand to over 1,00,000 product offerings for its consumers in the coming years.

In July 2012, Big Shoe Bazaar India raised Rs 100 crore ($20 million) in Series C round of funding led by Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture capital investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures. Earlier, in 2010, the company raised Rs 10 crore ($2 million) of Series A funding by Nexus Venture Partners, followed by a second round of funding of Rs 40 crore ($8 million) in 2011 led by Catamaran Ventures.