Rahul Yadav

For the Indian cricketer, see Rahul Yadav (cricketer).
Rahul Yadav
Rahul Yadav's photo
Born 1989
Alwar, Rajasthan, India
Nationality India
Education Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Occupation

Former Co-Founder& CEO Housing.com

Co-Founder of Intelligent Interfaces
Years active 2012 to present
Known for Housing.com
Notable work Housing.com, exambaba
Spouse(s) Karishma Khokhar

Rahul Yadav is an Indian entrepreneur, sometimes referred to as the "bad boy of Indian startups" owing to various controversies.[1][2] He was a co-founder and former CEO of Mumbai-based real estate search portal Housing.com. According to Forbes India, Housing.com sold eight million dollars worth of real estate in its first week.[3] For his work at Housing.com, Yadav made the Forbes India list of "30 Under 30" young entrepreneurs.[3]

His dismissal as CEO by Housing.com's board of directors[4] attracted considerable media attention. Subsequently, Yadav announced that he would be launching a new venture. As of August 2015, he was in negotiations with Paytm for funds for the new project.[5]

Later in the month, Yadav announced his latest venture, Intelligent Interfaces which would assist companies and organisations in automating processes. The company is backed by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, co-founders of the Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, Rahul Sharma co-founder of Indian mobile consumer electronics manufacturer Micromax Informatics and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm.[6] In December 2015, Yuvraj Singh's Youwecan ventures announced that they would be participating in the seed round as well.[7]

Early life & career

Yadav was born to middle-class parents from Alwar, Rajasthan.[8] He enrolled at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2007, specialising in metallurgy.[8][9] He served as the representative and secretary for the university's student association.[1] After first building Exambaba.com, an online question bank of old exam papers that IIT Bombay asked Yadav to close, Rahul dropped out of college in his final year.[8] In the process of building Exambaba.com, he had learned programming, which enabled him to subsequently design a series of Google applications. In 2012, he along with 11 other classmates co-founded Housing.com, after they had a difficult time finding accommodation in Mumbai.[8][10] He came up with a new venture related to virtual, augmented reality, and interfaces.

Housing.com

Housing.co.in was founded in 2012, and was later renamed Housing.com. Yadav says that he started up Housing.com in response to a severe housing shortage in India. By mid-2015, under Yadav's leadership, Housing.com had three offices in Powai, a suburb of Mumbai.[11] The site aims to increase transparency in the real estate market. Its original line-up of products include-map based rental search, verified purchase of apartments, buildings and even land in villages and rural areas and ‘Slice View’ which allows customers to take a virtual tour of chosen properties of big real estate companies. Having successfully solicited major investors to back the site, Yadav retained only a five percent share in the business which later made it possible for investors to oust him.[12]

Housing.com was named one of the hottest tech startups in 2012. SoftBank was among its funding partners, and the fledgling company also partnered with Tata Housing and Tata Value Homes.[13]

Yadav came into limelight for his controversial remarks about Vishal Sikka (CEO of Infosys), founders of Ola, Zomato and the announcement of distribution of his personal equity in the online real estate company, worth around 200 crore rupees, to its 2,251 employees.[14][15]

In June 2015, Rahul was fired by the company board citing "his behaviour towards investors, ecosystem and the media".[16] The shares of his business that Yadav donated to his former employees was considered to be the equivalent to a year's salary. In an apparent explanation of his actions, Yadav said, “I’m just 26 and it’s too early in life to get serious about money, etc,” in an interview with the Financial Express.[14]

Intelligent Interfaces

In September 2015, Rahul announced his new venture Intelligent Interfaces. The company had secured angel investment from co-founders of Flipkart,[17] Paytm,[18]YouWeCan and Micromax.[19] Intelligent Interfaces is reportedly a data analytics company and visualisation company catering to e-commerce companies.

References

  1. 1 2 "Timeline: The rise and fall of Rahul Yadav, the bad boy of Indian startups". Quartz. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "4 Mistakes That Cost Rahul Yadav His Job". Retrieved 2016-07-09.
  3. 1 2 Griffin, Peter (20 February 2015). "30 Under 30". Forbes India. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Chawla, Haresh (3 July 2015). "The Rahul Yadav story you've never heard". Foundingfuel.com. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Pathak, Kalpana (14 August 2015). "Rahul Yadav to launch his new venture soon". Business Standard. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  6. ↑ "Rahul Yadav is back: Here's what we know about Intelligent Interfaces so far | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dna. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  7. ↑ "Yuvraj Singh's firm YouWeCan Ventures makes seed investment in Rahul Yadav's Intelligent Interfaces - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2015-12-31.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Had Rahul Yadav lost interest in Housing.com?". The Economic Times. ET Bureau. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  9. ↑ Walia, Shelly (2 July 2015). "What Rahul Yadav's friends from IIT Bombay have to say about him". Quartz India. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  10. ↑ Bhat, Shravan (21 February 2014). "Housing.com: Born out of its founders' house hunt". Forbes India. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  11. ↑ Peer, Nikita (30 June 2015). "Meet the real Rahul Yadav". TechinAsia. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Chaudhary, Deepti (4 July 2015). "Rahul Yadav Unplugged". Forbes India. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Pai, Vivek (25 November 2014). "Housing.com launches interactive home booking platform Slice View". Medianama.com. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  14. 1 2 "Housing.com CEO Rahul Yadav gives away all his Rs 200 cr worth shares to 2,251 employees". Financialexpress.com. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  15. ↑ Chadha, Sunainaa (14 May 2015). "Is Rahul Yadav really the monk who sold his Ferrari? Decoding Housing.com CEO's Rs 200 cr gift to employees". FirstPost. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  16. ↑ Shrivastava, Aditi (1 July 2015). "Housing.com CEO Rahul Yadav fired". The Times of India. ET Bureau. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "Rahul Yadav back with e-governance startup; Flipkart's Bansals play angels | VCCircle". www.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  18. ↑ "Rahul Yadav's 'Intelligent Interfaces' Gets Backing From Flipkart's Sachin And Binny Bansal - The Tech Portal". thetechportal.in. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  19. ↑ "Rahul Yadav Reportedly Launching a Data Analytics Company". NDTV Gadgets360.com. Retrieved 2015-12-25.


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