Startup Investor Perspectives (India & APAC)

Building <div>I have been actively involved with promotion of startups since 2006, my first brush with it being at the first BarCamp in Bangalore. I later joined hands with fellow campers to start Headstart Network, today India's leading early stage entrepreneurs' network with over 20 city chapters.<br><br>I got introduced to the power of taking academic research to market as an MBA student at IIT Bombay which led the start of Academic Ventures, a consulting firm in technology commercialization space. Before Blume, I worked with TLabs, the accelerator program of Times Internet, as its second employee and discovered the joy of working closely with early stage startups.<br><br>At Blume, I lead science-led and hardware investments, particularly keen at proposals from Biotech, CleanTech, Energy, Electic Vehicles, Robotics and Electronics sectors. Companies I manage include Cashify, MechMocha, Tricog, MilkBasket, Spinny, Unocoin, BeatO, RailYatri, Mettl and E2E Networks.&nbsp;</div>

Building <div>Nadia joined Gobi as the first hire for the Indonesia office back in 2016. With her Biochemistry and Biomolecular Engineering background from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Trinity College, University of Cambridge, she joined Citibank as Project Manager to implement FATCA for Citibank’s SME clients in CitiBusiness and led the department’s operational audit, Manager’s Control Assessment, followed by a stint in RuangGuru where she helps with their Business Development projects while cultivating her passion in EduTech.</div><div><br></div><div>Nadia is passionate about EduTech and believes in meritocracy in education. She likes looking at companies that are also focuses on social impact, dedicated to solving deeply rooted mass market problems for middle class population.</div><div><br></div><div>She enjoys intellectual conversation with strangers about cultural, socioeconomic trends, intentional consumptive behavior, meditating and working out. She’s a netflix-amazonprime-appletv-hbogo binge watcher and read 24 books a year, while learning ukulele in her free time. Nadia is in currently heading the Indonesia operation for Gobi Partners.</div>

Building <div>Yagnesh Sanghrajka is a Chartered Accountant (1989 batch). He has had a long and successful career in the corporate world having led <strong>Finance, M&amp;A, Strategy and Investor Relations</strong> for various organizations, large and medium sized, listed and unlisted.<br><br></div><div>Yagnesh has worked for <strong>Hinduja Group</strong> (their IT/ ITES biz, now known as Hinduja Global Solutions - <strong>HGS</strong>), Entertainment World Developers P Ltd, part of the Atul Ruia led <strong>Phoenix Mills Group</strong> and <strong>MT Educare (</strong>brand name - <strong>Mahesh Tutorials), a listed education services player, </strong>now part of <strong>Essel Group</strong>. He has also worked as '<strong>India Operating Partner</strong>’ for <strong>Bessemer</strong> <strong>Venture Partners (BVP)</strong>, a top ranked US based Global VC/PE firm.<br><br></div><div>Yagnesh has been part of the key management team at all the above organizations, and has worked closely with Board of Directors as <strong>CFO</strong>. He has also been part of due diligence and valuation exercises both from acquirer and target companies’ perspective and hence possesses expert knowledge in these areas.&nbsp;<br><br></div><div>Yagnesh currently is the <strong>Founder and CFO</strong> of <strong>100X.VC</strong>, India’s first venture capital fund which uses iSAFE notes to fund startups.<strong> 100X.VC is </strong>promoted by <strong>Mehta Ventures</strong>, a family office owned by Ace Angel Investor <strong>Sanjay Mehta. </strong>100X.VC has already funded <strong>20 companies in Class 01 in 2019.<br></strong><br></div><div>LinkedIn Profile - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yagnesh270766">https://www.linkedin.com/in/yagnesh270766</a></div>