Background
Samir became an early-stage venture investor in 2001 following a 15-year operating career in the IT industry.
Industry executive
Samir spent a large part of his industry career as part of Wipro (NYSE: WIT), one of India’s well known IT companies. Samir was an integral part of Wipro’s joint venture with Acer Computer in Taiwan to build and sell computers for the Indian market.
Venture investor
Samir became a VC in 2001 when he joined Acer Technology Ventures (ATV) – a $260 million institutional venture fund investing in technology and services companies in India, U.S. and Asia Pacific. Post ATV, Samir co-founded Inventus, and has been an integral part of the three funds that Inventus has raised, including the most recent Inventus III – India Fund. He is/has been a Board Member / Observer on the Boards of Telibrahma (secondary sale), Instahealth (acq. Practo), Sokrati (acq. Dentsu), Savaari, CBazaar, Knolskape, Moveinsync, Aptener Tech (BluArmor) and VuNet.
India entrepreneurial leader
Samir has a well established network of business contacts throughout India and the Asia Pacific region. Samir is a Charter Member, and past member of the Governing Body, of TiE Bangalore.
Education
He holds a B.Tech (EE) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore.
What Founders Say
“Inventus/Athera has been our first institutional investor. As an entrepreneur, the business has witnessed many ups and downs with them on our board. i must say that they (Samir in particular and Rutvik multiple times) have always been supportive. they have always given advice which is right for the company. i also liked the fact that even if my decision was not as per their expectation, they always respected the founder decision. They have also been a great mentor to both me and my co-founder. i would love to have them on my cap table even for my second journey, if that ever happens”
Deepesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO at MoveInsync