Phanindra Sama and Manish Dalal to join GSF as venture partners
India's Tech-Startup accelerator founded by Rajesh Sawhney, GSF is delighted to announce two new strategic advisors and venture partners to its team. Phanindra Sama and Manish Dalal will be joining as venture partners of Global SuperAngels Forum (GSF).
Recently, the accelerator has joined the DreamPlus alliance with 10 other Asian accelerators and helped Whatfix raise a $300K funding.
GSF Founder, Rajesh Sawhney says,
At GSF, a Venture Partner is either an accomplished startup founder; a seasoned executive with deep domain expertise; or an investor with networks in global geographies relevant to GSF portfolio companies. A venture partner helps GSF to diligence deals during the selection of cohort every six months and takes on board/advisor responsibilities in some of its portfolio companies.
GSF Accelerator has funded 35 startups in 3 batches so far since its inception in 2012 and has a network of 40 plus Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and 300 mentors across the world. GSF SuperAngels is a pledge fund backed by 20 leading digital founders and key early stage investors in India.
Here's a brief background of both new venture partners at the fund:
Phanindra SamaPhani co-founded redBus.in, India’s largest bus ticketing company in 2006 and sold the company to Naspers in the year 2013. Phani was no # 3 amongst India’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs by Business World and as a Global Shaper 2011 of the World Economic Forum. He was awarded Entrepreneur of the year award under IT, ITES category by ET NOW, the BITSAA 30 under 30 award and Ranked 4 in ‘Impact digital power 100’ in India in 2013. He is also selected as Endeavor Entrepreneur and TiE Entrepreneur.
Manish Dalal
Manish has over 20 years of leadership experience in the Internet and mobile space at blue chip companies like Yahoo, Motorola, and Verisign, both in the US and in Asia. He has held numerous engineering, product, and business leadership positions at these companies. Manish is also an active early stage investor and has invested in several innovative startups in the mobile and consumer Internet space through Mumbai Angels.Manish holds a B.Sc in Computer Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago.
GSF startups have shown remarkable uptake by the investor community and corporate world: 16 out of 25 companies from the first two batches have successfully raised seed financing, 6 have raised series A funding and 3 exits including the first ever acquisition by Facebook of an Indian startup: Little Eye Labs, a GSF batch I startup.