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Phanindra Sama, founder of online ticketing firm redBus, has finally bid adieu to the company that he built over the last eight years.
Sama’s exit came a year after the Bangalore-based ticketing portal got acquired by travel aggregator IbiboGroup, owned by South African investment firm Naspers, for ₹780-crore. The acquisition was termed by investors and market watchers as the most successful exit for any entrepreneur in the ecommerce space so far.
redBus’ co-founder Charan Kumar Raju has also quit the company along with Sama, who had hinted at becoming an investor or starting a new venture. The BITS Pilani alumnus, known in the investors circle and his peers as a very humble person, is understood to have made a few crores through the redBus deal. Sama was not available for comments on his next move.
Ashish Kashyap, Group CEO, Ibibo, said: “Phani and Charan have helped in the smooth transition of the business. They are excellent entrepreneurs and I am sure they will continue to innovate in the future.”
New CEO Following the duo’s exit, Ibibo has appointed Prakash Sangam as the new CEO of redBus. The move is in line with Ibibo’s focus to drive seamless integration of redBus into the group. Prior to this, Sangam, an IIM-C alumnus, was the Executive Vice-President at Infoedge India Ltd (Naukri group), heading two portfolio businesses of the group namely, Shiksha.com and jeevansathi.com. He also worked with companies such as Airtel and Hindustan Unilever in multiple roles spanning marketing, brand management and sales.
It has also appointed Rohan Patnaik as its Head of Supply and Operations and Anoop Menon as its CTO.
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