VC-backed Housing.com fires controversial CEO
Rahul Yadav, the controversial CEO of VC-backed Indian property portal Housing.com, has been ousted from the company.
In a statement, Housing.com said Yadav's conduct is not "befitting of a CEO and is detrimental to the company," citing his "behavior towards investors, ecosystem and the media" as reasons for the dismissal. The start-up's investors include SoftBank, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.
The move comes three months after Yadav, who co-founded the business in 2012, issued a dramatic resignation letter in which he accused the company's investor of being "intellectually incapable." He was reinstated as CEO within days after backtracking and issuing an apology.
He made headlines again a month later, announcing that he would transfer all his shares in the company to its employees. Prior to that he had been Housing.com's fifth largest shareholder and held a 4.57% stake. Yadav also made waves in March when he entered into a public spat with Shailendra Singh, managing director at Sequoia Capital.
SoftBank led a $90 million round of funding for Housing.com in December of last year. The start-up initially received two rounds of angel funding in 2013 before Nexus came in with a $2.5 million Series A round. Earlier this year, Helion, Qualcomm Ventures and Nexus put in a further $19 million.
Housing.com was set up by a group of students from the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay. The platform uses a map interface to list properties in 45 cities, providing additional information such as photographs and details of nearby local amenities to assist users in their search. It has over 350,000 verified listings.
Housing.com said the search for an interim CEO is underway and a transition plan has been put in place. Daily operations will continue to be run by the firm's senior executives, with the board and the operating committee remaining closely involved with all key decisions.
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