Venkat S. Raju

With two successful exits in Silicon Valley and another out of Bangalore, Venkat is the quintessential Serial Entrepreneur. However, had he not pivoted midway in his life, he would have remained a Corporate Executive leading large global organizations.

Extremely active in the startup/innovation eco-system in India and the US, some of Venkat’s engagements include Venture Partner, EntrepreneurFirst; Chief Mentor, T-Hub; Mentor-In-Residence, Innovationqore (Turbostart); Advisor, Shell E4 Accelerator Program; Advisor to GE Edison [X] HealthCare Program; Mentor, Netapp Excellerator; Mentor, HPE Startup Challenge Program and Advisor, Flipkart’s LEAP Accelerator program.

He is also an active Angel Investor and a Mentor & Advisor (or Director) with several startups in AI, Blockchain, AR/VR, IoT, SaaS, Big Data & Analytics, FinTech, HealthTech, EdTech, Cyber & Data Security, EV & Mobility, DeepTech across several verticals including Financial Services, Retail, Logistics, Healthcare, Telecom, Energy and Transportation.

Most recently, he served as the CEO of Kyron Global, India’s largest Corporate (Open) Innovation Platform Services provider. Prior to this, he was the India Country Head & Managing Director for ACI Worldwide Inc., a leading global payments solutions provider. He has held several roles in the past including Founder/CEO of startups backed by Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, etc., in Silicon Valley; and CXO roles at British Telecom, VerticalNet, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank.

Venkat has been a Data Domain practitioner and continues to spend time in the converging AI, Data & Analytics space. He also has deep domain expertise in several verticals including Financial Services, Retail, Technology, and Telecom, and has been active in the Blockchain/Crypto domain the past few years.

He has lived and worked in three continents, running global teams, and is an alumnus of Boston University (Management & Business) and Indian Institute of Science (Electrical & Electronics Engineering).