Snapchat parent bolsters India leadership team with new hires

India is the biggest user market for Snapchat across the world with over 200 million monthly active users

Snapchat parent Snap Inc on May 22 announced several senior management appointments across functions in India, as part of the company's efforts to bolster its leadership team in a market which is key to its growth.

Snap has appointed Saket Jha Saurabh as its Director-Content, Partnerships and Augmented Reality (AR). Saurabh was previously with Meta, leading its partnerships with creators, public figures and media companies. He also had stints at Bloomberg and Fame Digital (#fame), a now-defunct digital entertainment network.

Saurabh will lead partnerships and content functions for Snapchat in India, its biggest market in the world with more than 200 million monthly active users. He will also be in-charge of building the firm's AR creator ecosystem in the country, the company said.

In recent years, Snap has invested significant efforts in building a thriving developer ecosystem in India since the country offers one of the largest pools of AR developers.

A picture of Snapchat India leadership team

Former Amazon executive Chirag Kohli has joined as Snap's head of growth for the India market, focusing on accelerating the company's user acquisition, engagement and revenue expansion efforts, the company said.

Kohli was with Amazon for nearly a decade across multiple roles and also worked with Axis Bank for about four years.

Other key appointments include former Amazon and Meta executive Amit Ojha, who will be the firm's India agency lead. Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) executive Neha Jolly Sawhney takes over as India sales head and former Meta executive Yagnesh Ravi as ads solutions lead.

"With this leadership team in India we are committed to serving our community, building value for advertisers, creators and AR developers and contributing to India's digital adoption" said Pulkit Trivedi, India managing director for Snap Inc.

"Snapchat’s unique appeal to Gen Z lies in its authentic engagement with real friends and family. This appeal has fuelled our rapid growth in India demonstrating our strong resonance. India presents a unique and large opportunity for us to invest and grow.”

Snap's localised India operating structure

In August, Snap unveiled a new localised operating structure in India while announcing Trivedi’s appointment.

Snap's local teams, including growth, market development, partnerships, content, and creator ecosystem, in India report directly to Trivedi. Trivedi reports to Ajit Mohan, the Asia Pacific (APAC) president.

In March, Trivedi told Moneycontrol that the company had doubled the size of its India team in the past year and was now present in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Snap was focusing on building localised experiences in the country to attract more Gen Z users to its app, Trivedi said.

The appointments come as Snap is slowly bouncing back after grappling with a downturn in the global digital advertising market in the past year or so.

In February, Snap announced plans to shift focus on user growth and deepening engagement in its most highly monetisable geographies, including North America and Europe.

Trivedi, however, had told Moneycontrol that India was one of the few countries where the tech major was still hiring since Snap's global leadership continued to see a lot of opportunity in the country.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has said they are making use of learnings from the company's expansion efforts in India to drive community growth in new geographies.