GOQii names former Google executive Amit Singhal to board of directors

NEW DELHI: California-based fitness technology venture GOQii has announced it has named former Google executive Amit Singhal to its Board of Directors, his first role since leaving his position as Head of Google search.

Amit brings more than 20 years of invaluable consumer and business expertise to GOQii and will help guide its expansion into new global markets, the first of which will be the U.S. Amit is widely respected in the tech industry for the ground-breaking advancements he made during his time at Google and other companies.

“It’s an exciting time to be at GOQii and we are thrilled to have Amit join our board of directors,” said GOQii CEO Vishal Gondal.

“Amit’s expertise is unparalleled and will be invaluable as we execute on our vision of helping millions of people shift to a healthier and sustainable lifestyle.," he added.

Amit’s 15 year career at Google began when he rewrote the search engine’s ‘ranking algorithm’, helping engineer the formulas that decide how web pages respond to user input. He led a team responsible for creating Google Search as well as the core search quality department.

Prior to Google, Amit worked at AT&T Labs, where he conducted extensive research in IR and database programming. Amit is a highly cited researcher, with his work being published numerous times in distinguished journals. Amit is widely-recognized in the industry as a pioneer and for his research. Fortune magazine named him “one of the smartest people in the tech industry”.

“GOQii’s trajectory of success has continued to impress me. I look forward to GOQii establishing its platform as the go-to solution in the health and wellness and wearable spaces,” said Singhal.

"I’m excited to advance the company’s mission as it does cutting edge work by integrating industry leading technology with personal interaction to improve users health and wellness," he added.

In addition to technology, Amit and GOQii have a shared mission of “giving back” and making a philanthropic impact on the world. GOQii’s Karma point feature allows users to support international relief programs as they strive towards their health and fitness goals.

Amit’s addition to the board will further strengthen GOQii’s team of strategic advisors via its Board of Directors. Additional board members include: Bala Deshpande, Senior Managing Director at New Enterprise Associates; Alex Yao, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Cheetah Mobile, Inc.; Pravin Gandhi, Entrepreneur and Founding Partner at SeedFund; and Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO of GOQii. In November, 2015 GOQii announced its Series A funding of $13.4 million, which was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Cheetah Mobile Inc. and Edelweiss with additional support from Great Wall Club (GWC), DSG Consumer Partners, Ilkka Paananen and Pravin Gandhi.