Mobile search technology company, Quixey, has appointed Silicon Valley tech veteran Mark Lazar as its new CEO. He will work closely with Co-Founder Tomer Kagan, who will take on the role of Chief Strategy Officer to “evangelize” Quixey’s next generation mobile search technology.
Lazar has previously been CEO at over 10 companies, including Victrio, Tuvox, Talking Blocks, Pacific Edge Software, and LoopNet, which went public in 2006. He also brings operating experience from various enterprise software companies in IT and web services management. He has an MBA and BA from Stanford University.
“Quixey has a unique vision and place in mobile search alongside big industry players like Google,” said the new CEO.
“I’m excited to come on board to lead the global Quixey team and provide the right strategy and execution to bring this vision to life. This is a key point in Quixey’s history as we prepare to take innovative products to market.”
While Kagan will continue to focus on the company’s vision and technology advancement strategy, Lazar will bring extensive leadership, go-to-market expertise, and a proven track record in developing relationships with large customers.
Once an app searching platform, Quixey has moved to in-app advertising products and deep-linking in apps with its trade-marked technology — Deep View Cards. Each Deep View Card is a single function of an app, such as purchasing a product or booking a flight. Deep View Cards are served via ads, search, and social media and messaging platforms.
The company has been sprucing up its team lately, with new appointments such as of Rajat Mukherjee, coming in as the new Chief Technology Officer, and Maxine Manafy as the VP of Business Development. Both Mukherjee and Manafy come in from Yahoo.
“At the end of last year, we released our ad product, and our partners have seen some great results implementing our technology into their campaigns,” said Kagan. “But our technology advancements in the mobile space don’t stop there. We have some releases in our pipeline, and I’m really excited to team up with Mark to drive the company forward, help us accelerate our growth and take a complex product to a complex market.”
In 2015, the company raised a $60 million investment round, with lead investors being Alibaba and Softbank, at a valuation of approximately $600 million.