Dr. Apoorva Sharma
They also have appointed Ranu Vohra as the new President
Mumbai, 4th April 2023: The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Mumbai announced today Dr. Apoorva Sharma will be taking over as the President elect of TiE Mumbai from March 2023 onwards for a period of two years. Ranu Vohra will be taking over as the President of TiE Mumbai for the same period.
TiE Mumbai has made significant positive strides over the past 24 months in all aspects of its operations and outreach to entrepreneurs. Post pandemic, TiE Mumbai successfully managed to migrate from digital space and moved back into the world of physical meetings, events and catch ups.
Welcoming Ranu Vohra and Dr. Apoorva Sharma, Amit Mookim, Former President, TiE Mumbai said, “Over the last 2 years, TiE Mumbai has grown from a base of 70 Charter Members to today having 140+ Charter Members. TiE Mumbai’s revenue base through a mix of TiEcon, Open Innovation programs, Membership has grown by 2x and is slated to grow to 3x revenue by the end of this year. Today we are tightening our Governance Structures, building a Robust Team, Board and Charter Members with a 3-5year Vision and Leadership in mind. Ranu and Apoorva have been a part of the TiE Mumbai leadership and the TiE network for a long time. They together are well positioned to scale TiE Mumbai even further and continue this growth trajectory.”
In the past two years, under the leadership of Amit Mookim, TiE Mumbai has made tremendous progress and has achieved several feats. TiEcon 2022 was an overwhelming success with 27 Unicorns, 3600 Delegates, 1500+Startups and a fantastic mix of Leaders and Officials. This was a major boost to the startup ecosystem and TiE Mumbai’s memberships, thus creating a healthy surplus for the organization.
During the height of the pandemic, TiE Mumbai pivoted to starting Open Innovation programs for corporates. TiE Mumbai helped these corporates from Designing, building value for startups, executing the program (cohorts) to holding a demo/graduation day as a part of entire exercise. Today, TiE Mumbai is viewed as one of the successful partners in India to help corporates in their Open Innovation Strategy and Programs. It won the “Most Innovative Program” among all the other chapters at the last Rome Retreat. It has also organized several Thought Leadership Series, investor connects and venture investing classes during this period. TiE Mumbai Special Interest Groups viz. Fintech, Healthcare, Food Network. Media and Retail created excellent value for Start-ups. TiE Mumbai has also been highly active in engaging with other chapters both in India and across the globe. TIE Mumbai’s intra-chapter index has gone up notches over the past couple of years.
Commenting on his election, Ranu Vohra, President, TiE Mumbai said “TiE Mumbai has been the crucible for innovation and for entrepreneurs to interact, learn from one another and build more sustainable, robust businesses. Mumbai continues to offer significant advantages to the growing cohort of entrepreneurs and in offering a great start up ecosystem, which is so vital for companies to start and prosper. TiE Mumbai will be central to entrepreneurs as they go along in the journey to become more meaningful and responsible corporate citizens for the country. Besides, as the financial capital of India, Mumbai offers companies the resource they need the most as they build on their value proposition. My vision is to continue its rich legacy and bring Mumbai higher on the country’s startup map through TiE. I would like to thank the Past Presidents and the current Board of TiE for electing me to this position. I would also like to thank the outgoing President, Amit Mookim, in strengthening TiE and continuing the rich legacy despite a tough COVID environment.”
Dr. Apoorva Sharma, President elect, TiE Mumbai added, “We are witnessing a staggering growth momentum in the Startup sector in India. I am very excited about my new role at TiE Mumbai, which will help me contribute to this trajectory. I congratulate Amit Mookim on an extremely successful tenure at TiE Mumbai. I look forward to closely working with Ranu Vohra and the board to continue this momentum with a focus on structured mentoring thus adding value to the various stakeholders by fostering entrepreneurship, boosting innovation, knowledge sharing and funding.. TiE Mumbai is at an inflection point in its current journey, ready to scale up and take on more initiatives to address the larger issues of our ecosystem.”
“In their new roles, Ranu Vohra and Dr. Apoorva Sharma will together charter the path of building a concrete leadership team for the Startup ecosystem with a 5-year view. Their combination works significantly well since Ranu brings with him his rich experience with late-stage startups coupled with solid investments in that space while Apoorva adds immense value as he has built a strong investment network for early to growth stage companies. Their combination covers the entire breadth of the industry effectively.” said Harish Mehta, Author- The Maverick Effect, Founder & Chairman- Onward Technologies and Past President & Board Member of TiE Mumbai.
The new leadership team will further leverage TiE Mumbai’s presence and initiatives, and strengthen the startup connect with the investor, government, corporate and trade networks and build knowledge and agenda driven programs to enhance Mumbai’s presence as a preferred destination for startups.
Profile of Ranu Vohra
Ranu Vohra is the co-founder of Avendus Capital, a leading financial services organization, and currently serves as its Executive Vice Chairman. He along with his fellow co-founders has been responsible for Avendus’ overall growth over the last 23 years. He has spent the last 28 years in the Indian financial services industry concluding several marquee transactions in investment banking and private equity. He is based in Mumbai.
He has worked alongside several notable entrepreneurs in helping them chart their growth journeys, capital raising, M&A, restructuring and in reaching their goals for success.
Prior to co-founding Avendus, Ranu worked with a Tampa (USA) based technology and media investment bank, Communications Equity Associates (CEA) and Hinduja Finance, a diversified financial services firm. He holds an MBA degree from FMS, New Delhi and has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from IIT, New Delhi.
Profile of Dr. Apoorva Sharma
Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma an Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and Visionary is a founding father of the startup ecosystem in India and has been mentoring & investing in startups since 2002. He has curated, incubated, and led seed investments of over 100 startups to date.
He co-founded Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, Elev8, and Beams Fintech Fund. Dr. Sharma has been awarded by The President of India, Mr. Ratan Tata & Mr. Narayan Murthy for his milestone contributions to the startup movement in India.
He holds a Ph.D. in Incubation. The Economic Times ranked him among the top 10 most active angel investors for three consecutive years.
