Behind every successful IT start-up are brave men and women who risk their money on some 20-somethings and gives them the Midas touch. There are eight Indian or Indian-origin investors on Forbes’ latest Midas list.
Heading the list is Jim Meyer of Accel Partners, who had bet $12.7 million on a Harvard drop-out with a social network (Facebook), a deal that turned into a “once-in-a-generation investment”, said Forbes. With an 11% stake, Accel Partners is Facebook’s second-largest shareholder after Mark Zuckerberg. Breyer personally owns 1% in Facebook.Rob Chandra, a four-time Midas list member, is the highest ranking Indian-origin investor whose investments include India-based Bharat Matrimony and Summit Microelectronics.
Others on the list are Sameer Gandhi, Vinod Khosla, Neeraj Aggarwal, Navin Chaddha, Ajay Aggarwal, Asheem Chandra, and Subrata Mitra.
Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, “is known for off-the-beaten-path clean-tech investments, including wood-based biofuel, new types of batteries, water purification, greener glass and clean cement,” said Forbes.
{{/usCountry}}Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, “is known for off-the-beaten-path clean-tech investments, including wood-based biofuel, new types of batteries, water purification, greener glass and clean cement,” said Forbes.
{{/usCountry}}Navin Chaddha invested in companies including MakeMytrip and Bharat Matrimony.
Software investor Ajay Agarwal invested in warehouse robot company Kiva Systems, which sold to Amazon for $775 million in March 2012.
Subrata Mitra, who came in 99 on the list, has put money in Flipkart and Amazaon.com.