People

Dr. Apoorv Sharma

Cofounder & president of Venture Catalysts

Asia’ first integrated incubator and No. 1 Early Stage Investor Since 2017

Dr. Apoorv Sharma is cofounder & president of Venture Catalysts – Asia’ first integrated incubator and No. 1 Early Stage Investor in 2017 rated by leading national media.

Dr. Apoorv Sharma is one of the founding fathers of startup ecosystem in India, he has been instrumental in developing startup ecosystem since early 2000. He has been pioneer in establishing incubators in India. He has established over dozen incubators & accelerators, incubation funds and family office funds i.e. VentureNursery, Amity Innovation Incubator, Somaiya Incubator (RIDDLE), Mata Vaishno Devi University Incubator, Indian Angel Network Incubator. He is recipient of prestigious Best Incubator Award given by President of India, for outstanding performance of JSS Incubator.

Dr. Apoorv Sharma is PhD in Incubation from Amity University, Noida and graduated in Engineering from HBTI, Kanpur and diploma in Mentor Studies of Berkley Institute of Management, University of California, USA.

Dr. Apoorv Sharma is known as ‘Fund Manager with Highest Returns’. He is one of the top 10 angel investors in India, rated by VCCircle 2016. Over last two decades; he has curated, incubated & led seed investment of 100+ startups. OYO Rooms is the biggest success story of accelerators in India, followed by Beardo which is a recent acquisition by Marico Ltd. Both the startups were curated, mentored and seed sourced by Dr. Apoorv Sharma.

Today, Dr. Apoorv Sharma has become one of the most influential figure in Indian startup funding space. His leadership & passion has motivated thousands of investors to take a plunge into startup investments.

Sameer Rastogi

Managing Partner INDIA JURIS

International Law Firm

Mr.Sameer Rastogi, a Corporate Lawyer, is Managing Partner, of India Juris, an International Law Firm. He is a science graduate, post graduate in Marketing Management, Masters in Business laws, LLb from Bangalore University and Registered Patent Agent. In his experience of around two decades he has advised & represented clients from almost all the major countries in various business sectors. His areas of practice include Corporate laws, Foreign Exchange Laws, FDI, JVs, Foreign Collaborations, M&A, Capital Markets, ESOPs, International taxation, IPRs:- Trade Marks, Patents Designs etc.

Mr.Rastogi has been consistently nominated as Asia leading lawyer since 2012 for Corporate/M&A practices in India. On Corporate & Legal matters, he has been guiding many Entrepreneurs, Start-ups, Accelerators, Incubators, E-cells of various academia, PE & VC Funds, Seed Investment & Innovation platforms, Angel Networks and Angel Investors.