Faith in the innate genius of Indian entrepreneurship has seen many investors striking gold in the past few years. The category ‘Midas Touch’ will fete the best investor of 2019.
Here are the shortlisted entrants for the ‘Midas Touch’ category in The Economic Times Startup Awards 2019. A high-profile jury will pick the winners from eight categories today.
Mukul Arora
Role: MD
Investment firm: SAIF Partners
Based: New Delhi
Key Investments: Swiggy, Meesho, Unacademy
Investment Strategy: Mukul Arora started out as an associate at SAIF Partners in 2010, and had become a partner at the fund within six years. He bet early on Swiggy, which is valued at more than $3.3 billion today. Arora also plays a partner supporting role at Paytm.
Bejul Somaia
Role: MD
Investment firm: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Investments: Indian Energy Exchange, Udaan, Oyo
Investment strategy: Bejul Somaia established Lightspeed Venture Partners’ India operations in 2008. It was only in 2015, however, that the fund raised an independent India corpus and has since picked some of the buzziest startups like Byju’s, Oyo, Udaan and ShareChat.
Anand Daniel
Role: Partner
Investment firm: Accel Partners
Key investments: Swiggy, Blackbuck, Bounce, TaxiForSure
Investment strategy: Anand Daniel has a diverse portfolio including commerce, enterprise, logistics, healthcare and finance. His top exits include TaxiForSure, which was sold to Ola for $200m. He has spotted many firms with potential multi-million dollar valuations, including Swiggy, Blackbuck and Bounce.
Source: Economic Times
