Gaurav Kachru, who had been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Smile Group’s daily deal portal DealsAndYou.com in October 2010, and later became a part of the Corporate Development and Strategy team at Smile has resigned from the company. According to TechCircle, Kachru is planning a new venture which will be a blend of both online and offline models.

The report further suggests that Kachru will start the company with two other partners and is currently sorting out the business. However, he will be able to divulge the exact nature of the new venture in another 30-90 days. Right now, he is also in talks with investors to raise a Series A funding of approximately $1.5-2 million. Meanwhile, Smile Group has already appointed Ryan Valles as the new CEO for daily deal site DealsAndYou.com.

In November 2010, Guneet Singh, co-founder and director, DealsAndYou.com had sold his stake in the daily deal portal back to Switzerland-based Group Buying Global AG, which holds majority stake in DealsAndYou, and exited from the company. Following this, Kachru was made the CEO of the company.

Gaurav Kachru had earlier led new business incubation and corporate development functions across Smile Interactive Technologies Group which has businesses with WPP, Yahoo, ScanGroup, Group Buying Global AG and Brand Alliance Network (Private Shopping).

In November 2011, DealsAndYou had raised a funding of $17 million (Rs 84 crore) from a group of investors, including Mayfield Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Other investors included Nokia Growth Partners and Intel Capital. The company had then been valued at $85 million.