App-only marketplace Little makes key hires

Former Cleartrip product manager Wishy Arora and Suraj Panigrahy, formerly with 69 seconds, are the latest hires

Little, an app-only marketplace, has hired former Cleartrip product manager Wishy Arora and Suraj Panigrahy, formerly with 69 seconds, as senior hires to beef up its team

Little is founded by Manish Chopra and Satish Mani.

Panigrahy, former CEO and co-founder of 69 seconds, will help build the firm's merchant acquisition team in the consumer lifestyle business. Arora, who was managing Cleartrip's mobile apps portfolio, will join as vice president, products, at Little.

Launched in July 2015 with $50 million funding led by Paytm, SAIF Partners and Tiger Global Management among others, the 'Little' app aims to be both a discovery platform for lifestyle consumers and a significant sales channel for merchants.

Speaking on the appointments, Manish Chopra, CEO and co-founder of Little, said: "Wishy comes with the fabulous experience of building a much admired mobile product at Cleartrip and Suraj brings to Little, considerable experience in working with large technology businesses and hands-on retail knowhow with his QSR venture. Both will be key to scaling 'Little' rapidly and making it, the de-facto 'go - to' mobile app in the O2O space. The new appointments are an indication of the kind of ambitious people plans at 'Little' and there will be more to come soon."

Little has already enrolled 5,000 merchants across 11 cities. By March 2016, Little will offer 50,000+ deals across services like restaurants, movies, hotels, salons, gyms, spas and is expected to hit a GMV run rate of $170 million, it said.