99.co appoints former Lamudi exec as Indonesia head

Singapore-headquartered property marketplace 99.co has announced two key appointments to lead its Indonesia operations and product initiatives.

“We are thrilled to announce the appointments of Rajesh Grover and Vivek Kumar. They are true powerhouses, having raised startups of their own and had outstanding achievements in their fields,” 99.co CEO Darius Cheung said in a statement.

Grover was appointed the managing director for 99.co Indonesia, where he will be responsible for the business’ profitability and growth in the country. He was co-founder and managing director during his time at property portal Lamudi, where he was in charge of the company’s operations in Asia. According to a statement, he achieved profitability in markets such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh within 24 months of taking the helm at the Rocket Internet firm.

“Being an entrepreneur myself, I can relate to the values and vision with which Darius started 99.co. Solving real-world problems that customers face while buying and selling property is my connection to 99.co, and excites me of being part of the mission and vision […],” Grover said.

Kumar, on the other hand, will focus on delivering and scaling a product for 99.co as the company’s new product lead. He previously worked at companies like MagicBricks, Amazon, and Snapdeal, leading product initiatives and teams.

“The traditional classifieds portal model is a sunset business. Innovation within classifieds is not just about improving features step-incrementally but really developing a new and futuristic model,” Cheung said.

Citing data from SimilarWeb, 99.co claims it has grown 38x from 100,ooo users per month in 2017 to 3.8 million users in 2019.

In August, it raised US$15 million in a series B round, which saw participation from new investors Mindworks Ventures and Allianz Strategic Investments. Its other backers include East Ventures, Eduardo Saverin, and Sequoia Capital India.