The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Shyam Menon, Kunal Upadhyay, managers, Bharat Innovation Fund
Shyam Menon and Kunal Upadhyay, managers of the $100m Bharat Innovation Fund, have obtained support for its first close this year from a wide range of high-profile investors – consumer electronics company Philips, insurance provider ICICI Lombard, financial services firm RBL Bank and the government-backed Small Industries Development Bank of India.
The fund is affiliated to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and will focus on pre-series A and series A stage startups in sectors such as fintech, renewables and agriculture. It aims to offer investments of between $500,000 and $2.5m. As of July, the fund had raised approximately $50m for its initial close.
Menon and Upadhyay are also founding partners of Infuse Ventures, an energy and sustainability-focused venture capital business that has grown out of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad – a program that Upadhyay co-founded in 2007.
