People Group founder Anupam Mittal has stepped down as CEO of online matrimonial portal Shaadi.com to focus on global expansion and new areas of business. Mittal takes on the mantle of managing director while Gourav Rakshit, who was the chief operating officer, takes over as Shaadi.com's new CEO.
Mittal told VCCircle, he will continue to drive People Group as CEO. People Interactive (I) Pvt Ltd is the consumer internet arm of the Rs 350-crore People Group which owns the flagship brand Shaadi.com, under which several matrimonial businesses are managed.
The development was first reported by The Economic Times.
Mittal will be joining the corporate development team along with Aditya Save, Shaadi.com's chief marketing officer.
For Rakshit, who has already been looking after day to day operations of the venture, the change would mean full responsibility for Shaadi.com.
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Rakshit has been with the People Group in different roles since 2007. Prior to that, he worked with Infosys, Planetasia and Nestle.
The top-level changes come at a time when the People Group is looking to raise a large amount to bankroll expansion of its two key technology ventures—Shaadi.com and mobile content and application venture Mauj Mobile, as first reported by VCCircle.
Shaadi.com already claims to be the market leader in the match-making industry where it competes with players such as BharatMatrimony.com and Jeevansathi.com among others.
Mittal, who is an active angel investor in several startups, started Shaadi.com in 1996 before forming People Group to look at other opportunities in technology space. Mittal has made angel investments in over 60 startups.
Early this year, he sold two of his other ventures—dating app Fropper and property listing portal Makaan.com.
Fropper has been brought under another dating app Thrill in which People Group has separately invested. Makaan.com was acquired by online property broker PropTiger. PropTiger is part owned by global news and digital media company News Corp. In March, News Corp acquired the parent of this news website.