OLX India Founder, CEO Amarjit Batra to move to Naspers

OLX India on Tuesday announced that Amarjit Singh Batra, the CEO and founder of the OLX India business, is planning to move within Naspers for his next adventure.

Amar joined OLX in 2008 and has been instrumental in building OLX India as the undisputed market leader as well as a household name. Starting out as the first employee of OLX India, he built the business from scratch to a 550-strong-team today.

"On the back of a robust and innovative product, we have delivered our strongest year yet. I started out alone in India for almost three years but today I have a team of great leaders who are poised to take the business to even greater heights. I have also spent a lot of time in building a culture that not only keeps the brand mission alive but also makes OLX a great place to work. The time is opportune to end this leg of the journey and take up a new challenge. Naspers has a wide footprint and several exciting opportunities in emerging markets that I am exploring at the moment," said Batra.

Batra not only pioneered the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) classifieds business in India but also led OLX to become the largest classifieds platform in the country commanding 80 percent market-share of the C2C classifieds business, and a brand-awareness that has now been consistently seven times or more than that of the closest competitor. Apart from introducing India to selling and buying of pre-owned household items, Batra also led OLX to emerge as the biggest platform for pre-owned cars in the country commanding 72 percent market-share of the pre-owned car trade.

Other key categories that thrived under his leadership were that of pre-owned motorcycles, where OLX has 75 percent market-share of the online trade, and mobile phones, where OLX commands 50 percent market share. Real Estate and Jobs are also categories that he built from a horizontal perspective, giving OLX an underlying advantage in the space.

"India is a huge and diverse market, and the way OLX India has shaped up to become an undisputable leader in the horizontal classifieds space is a testimony to Amar's vision, strategy, and execution. What I am most pleased with is the strong leadership team and culture that Amar has built at OLX India, which has laid a solid foundation for taking the company to the next level," said Martin Scheepbouwer, Global CEO of OLX Group.

"The person who will be coming in place of Amar has some big shoes to fill. We are working on the transition, and will be ready to share the successor's name soon," he added.