KOLKATA: Homegrown hyperlocal CDN (content delivery network) SugarBox has powered up its leadership team with the addition of Tapan Jindal as finance head and Sarthak Batra as design director.

With more than 15 years of vast experience in corporate finance and investment banking, Jindal will be responsible for heading the finance team and look largely into legal, secretarial and supply chain function. Prior to this, he was the chief finance officer at Baazi Games. His past experiences include working with leading companies such as CarDekho, Fidelity, iGate and Moody’s.

Batra, who brings with him design experience, will look into strategic designing and managing and building team capability. His most recent stint was with Livspace home interiors as a product design lead. He also co-founded a health-tech start-up called Healthmonk in 2016. Some of his past noteworthy works comprise Manipal University websites, Hyatt hotels web & mobile experience, Flipkart marketplace and Geobrowse, Walmart Mexico's Scan & Go self-checkout.

Started in 2017 by Rohit Paranjpe and Ripunjay Bararia, SugarBox aims to solve the problem of availability and reliability of internet connectivity – for everyone, everywhere. It acts as the pioneer in ‘on the go’ services that are transforming consumer experience. It solves the problem of buffering content which results in an uninterrupted experience while travelling.

SugarBox co-founder and CEO Rohit Paranjpe said, “At the start of this new year, it is my pleasure to welcome them into our fold and I’m grateful for the experiences that they bring. We look forward to capitalising their unique professional backgrounds and expertise. SugarBox is at an exciting and critical juncture at this moment and I am most proud of the team and culture that our company has built and remain fully committed to the vision. We have exciting plans to develop the business as we begin our association with Indian Railways this year and fortifying our leadership will play a pivotal role in shaping our future.”

 SugarBox is present across pilot deployments in nine cities and 250 Places of Interest (POIs). They are offering the services to various POIs in cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai. The company is looking to expand its network to Delhi, Kolkata, and other cities in the next two years. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZeeL) owns 80 per cent equity stake in SugarBox since its inception and in 2020, it announced an investment of Rs 522 crores in SugarBox.