Indian online marketplace Snapdeal has hired Bharti Airtel’s business-to-consumer CMO Govind Rajan and appointed him as its new chief strategy officer.

Rajan, who also headed Airtel Money, will take on the new role in August.

The appointment comes less than a month after Snapdeal poached Airtel’s chief product officer, Anand Chandrasekaran, and gave him the same position at the e-commerce startup.

Snapdeal, which claims more than three-quarters of sales are made on mobile devices, reportedly has attracted a $500 million investment from Alibaba and Foxconn, which have taken a combined 10 per cent stake. The deal is said to be waiting for regulatory approval in India.

The investment would value the company at an estimated $5 billion.

Snapdeal received $1 billion last year from Japan’s SoftBank and eBay as well as other existing investors, to prepare it to compete with international and local rivals Amazon and Flipkart.