Housing.com appoints COO Rishabh Gupta as interim CEO

After Rahul Yadav’s publicized dismissal as CEO, Housing.com has named chief operating officer Rishabh Gupta as the interim CEO of the company. Softbank representative Jonathan Bullock stated that Gupta’s appointment has been termed effective immediately in an internal mail marked ‘Moving Forward and Looking Up’. Softbank is the largest shareholder in the company.

“We believe and expect that his principled leadership, tenacity and determination will position us well,” Bullock said in the email sent to Housing employees on Thursday evening.

Gupta who has earlier worked in Flipkart, has been running the company the past few months after Yadav and the board members hit a rocky patch.

An operating committee will also invite Gupta, angel investor Haresh Chawla and CTO Abhishek Anand.

Housing was founded in 2012 by a dozen college-mates from IIT-Mumbai. Four of them including Yadav now have left the company.

The company is currently controlled by SoftBank, which has a 32% stake in Housing. The Japanese firm has formed an executive committee that controls Housing’s finances and operations, and is led by Bullock, who recently replaced SoftBank’s president Nikesh Arora on the Housing board.

Investor Nexus venture owns about 19% stake in Housing, and Helion Ventures and Falcon Edge about 10% each.

“India’s real estate market is a winner-takes-all race, with a multi-billion dollar prize. With the best product, and the best team, we have put ourselves absolutely in pole position, but this race is just beginning,” Bullock said in his email.

Housing – which competes with CommonFloor, 99Acres, and MagicBricks, owned by the Times Group that publishes this newspaper – has attracted more than Rs 760 crore in funding and is valued at over Rs 1,500 crore.