HomeYoung Turks NewsIndia is the epicentre for global consumer growth, says Venky Harinarayan of Rocketship VC

India is the epicentre for global consumer growth, says Venky Harinarayan of Rocketship VC

CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Venky Harinarayan, Partner of Rocketship VC to talk about Rockship VC's India investments.

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By Shereen Bhan  June 21, 2022, 8:59:42 PM IST (Published)

When two Stanford-educated PhDs in computer science, with an academic interest in data mining, start a venture capital firm, we get Rocketship VC. Founded by the duo of Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, Rocketship is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in companies using models built on Data Science and Machine Learning.


A model that has helped the Silicon Valley-based VC firm identify and invest early in Indian startups such as Moglix, NoBroker and Apna, which have all turned unicorn. So far, Rocketship VC has backed nearly 20 Indian startups, including Jar, Khatabook, Locus, Teachmint and Yulu among others.

Famous for being early investors in Facebook, Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan are also well-known serial entrepreneurs in the Valley. Over the last three decades, they have founded, funded, and sold startups to Amazon, Adobe, Google and Walmart. Notably, as senior executives at Amazon and Walmart, the duo have led ground-breaking innovations, influencing how the world shops online and offline.

These days, besides investing in startups, Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan are dreaming of watching a series of swashbuckling sixes at an IPL-like Major Cricket League match in America. The duo were amongst a host of investors, which included Satya Nadella, who participated in the recent $120 million funding round for MCL.

CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Venky Harinarayan, Partner of Rocketship VC about Rocketship VC’s India investments.

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