Raftaar.in appoints Surjit Singh as VP and head, marketing

Singh joins Raftaar from Yatra.com, where he was working as head of strategic alliances for over seven years.

Raftaar.in, the Hindi search portal from Indicus NetLabs, a subsidiary of Indicus Analytics, has appointed Surjeet Singh as vice-president and head of marketing and business development. Singh, who will be based in New Delhi, joins Raftaar from Yatra.com, where he was working as head of strategic alliances for over seven years.

Singh is backed by more than 12 years of experience across domains in online media, e-commerce, banking and digital payments sectors. Singh began his career at Citibank, where he steered the Citibank payment gateway business. All leading e-commerce merchants like IRCTC, Indiatimes, Indian Airlines and Makemytrip were directly under his supervision. After a successful stint of more than four years, he moved to Times Internet.

At Yatra, Singh was instrumental in leading Yatra's strategic programme with Indian and international banks, telcos, e-commerce and electronics companies.

At Raftaar, Singh will concentrate on identifying growth aspects and scaling the footprints of the search platform including the expansion of the outreach through mobile and VAS. He will be responsible for operational management and contribution of marketing and business strategic decisions as well as the associated partnerships in terms of forward integration with leading online category owners and OEMs.

Commenting on the appointment, Peeyush Bajpai, co-founder and director, Raftaar.in, says, "Surjeet will pay a critical role in aligning our focus and sustaining the growth of the platform from a marketing and business prospect. His vast experience and understanding of the Indian online market will enhance the positioning and understanding of Raftaar's long term vision."

Raftaar is a specialised Hindi search engine developed by Indicus Analytics, an internationally renowned economic data and analytics firm. Currently, Raftaar claims to be the largest aggregator of Hindi content in the world, which compiles information from multiple online sources expanding across verticals such as search, news, education, dictionary, astrology, religion, songs, movies and blogs.