January 5, 2009

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed. —William Gibson

in|vest: Alok Mittal, Canaan Partners

IMG_7373 Name: Alok Mittal

Location: New Delhi

Bio: Alok Mittal is Managing Director with Canaan Partners India. Alok focuses on building companies in the fast-growing wireless, technology and Internet domains.

A successful entrepreneur and founding member of Band of Angels India, Alok also seeks to foster the development of new global technologies in India.  He led the technology practice at Baring Private Equity Partners, India, where he focused on IT products and services, BPO, Internet and Telecom. Prior to Baring, Alok was Co-founder of JobsAhead.com, a leading web-based recruitment business. Alok was instrumental in the acquisition of JobsAhead by Monster.com, the global leader in online recruitment. He also brings strong Telecom experience to Canaan having worked for Hughes Software Systems, the premium provider of telecom software services and systems in India. He serves on the Board of Directors of Bharat Matrimony, iYogi and Cellcast. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Have you invested in startups meant for the Indian market before? Which ones?

Canaan’s investments targeted at Indian market are Bharatmatrimony, Techtribe and Cellcast. The other companies with significant India component are e4e, Unitedlex and iYogi.

What sectors or investment themes look most promising to you in the Indian market?

We are looking to broadly invest in early stage technology ventures including internet, mobile applications, software products, offshore services, transaction processing and so on.

What excites you most about your sector of choice in the context of India?

High growth rate of consumer markets, increasing rate of technology adoption, and vibrancy of venture-backed startups are the key factors that excite us about India. Our focus on technology is derived from our extensive experience in this segment globally.

What is one thing that Indian entrepreneurs often overlook when deciding to start a venture?

A key element that entrepreneurs would do well to factor in is the element of differentiation - not just at a feature level, but how are they able to bring significant benefits to existing and competitive offerings - especially benefits that the customer may be willing to pay for incrementally.

What are your personal interests?

My personal interests include reading (a whole bunch of diverse non-fiction), music, driving/riding. I am a moderate gadget user, with the regular ipod, palm, laptop stuff.

Connect: http://www.canaan.com, http://www.venturewoods.org, http://www.indianangelnetwork.com

[To learn more about in|vest, read the overview page and this blog post. If you are an investor with an interest in India and would like to participate in in|vest, please read the participate page as well.]

September 11, 2008 | Filed Under in|vest 

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