Zenoti appoints former Microsoft exec as new COO

Hyderabad- and Bellevue-based Zenoti, which offers software solutions to the beauty and wellness industry, has appointed Srinivas Chandrasekar as chief operating officer (COO).

Chandrasekar will lead all of product, services, support, and adoption teams, the company said in an official statement.

A veteran of software-as-a-service (SaaS) domain, Chandrasekar joins Zenoti after a 17-year long stint at Microsoft where he was responsible for leading global services on Azure in the company's India development centre at Hyderabad. He has also worked with Aztecsoft and SumTotal.

“Srini brings with him deep expertise in architecting team structures and processes to build high quality products which our customers will benefit from immediately. His ability to grow and scale teams is a great match for the rapid expansion we’re seeing across our company’s operations,” said Sudheer Koneru, founder and CEO, Zenoti.

Zenoti has also appointed Rohit Agarwal as the company’s first senior vice president of finance and business development. Agarwal will be leading the company’s finance function as well as merger and acquisition initiatives.

In his previous roles, Agarwal led the software coverage at Avendus Capital where he was a director of digital and technology investment banking. Prior to Avendus, he was director, technology investment banking at UBS and a vice president, technology M&A investment banking at Credit Suisse.

The appointments come on the heels of Zenoti raising $20 million in a fresh round of funding in August from Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital.

At the time of the funding, the startup had hired another Microsoft executive Guy Weismantel, a SaaS and technology industry veteran, as senior vice president of marketing. He has also worked with Expedia earlier and later held marketing roles with startups Pushpay and Marchex.

Operated by Soham Inc, Zenoti was founded in 2010 by Koneru and his brother Dheeraj Koneru.

The company offers a full stack of services catering to the beauty & wellness industry that includes booking appointments, billing & payments, customer relationship management, staff management, inventory control and analytics.

While the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand remain its major markets, Zenoti’s Indian operations account for nearly 15-20% of the total business. Likewise, around 80% of its total headcount operates out of India, Sudheer Koneru had told TechCircle in May this year.

Zenoti’s client roster includes Truefitt & Hill, Lakme, Kaya Skin Clinic, Blunt, Waxing the City, Massage Heights, Mario Tricoci, Prose Boutiques, Sono Bello and Rudy's Barbershop.

While it primarily caters to the beauty and wellness industry, it has also recently expanded the use case of its software platform to other segments such as hospitality.

Zenoti raised $15 million in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners, along with existing investor Accel in 2016.

A year before that, Zenoti had secured $6 million in Series A funding from Accel and others.