Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, 9Unicorns and at Venture Catalysts Group

Profile

Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma is the co-founder of Venture Catalysts Group - 9Unicorns, Beams & Elev8. Under his leadership, Venture Catalysts Group has become World’s 2nd most active incubator & startup investor and, from last 6 consecutive years stood No 1 Investment Group in India. It has invested in 300+ startups, built an ecosystem of 6000+ angel Investors across 54+ cities in India and 6 regions globally! He is the first PhD in Incubation from India, acclaimed globally, He holds an MBA, B. Tech. from reputed institutions; and diploma in Mentoring Studies from UC Berkeley. Dr. Sharma has been mentoring & investing in startups since 2002. He has established more than 12 incubators in India.

Dr. Sharma is actively contributing towards Startup Ecosystem growth in India along with various Central Government initiatives and he is currently on-board with Technology Development Board of Department of Science & Technology - India, and Board of Samridh, MeiTY, Ministry of Electronics & Information.

Dr Sharma has mentored & invested in more than 100 startups. He has an eye for identifying unicorns at a very early stage! In 2012, he invested in OYO Rooms as the first investor/mentor, which is today the most valued startups globally with a valuation of $10Bn+

In 2017, 2018 & 2019, Dr. Apoorva Sharma was ranked among the top 10 most active angel investors in India, by Economic Times. For his contribution to the startup ecosystem in India, he has been awarded by the President of India, and two biggest industries of India – Mr. Narayan Murthy & Mr. Ratan TATA. In 2019 Dr Apoorva Sharma launched his first fund, called 9Unicorns - India's first early stage Accelerator Fund, $100M investment fund, and successfully launched $120M Beams Fintech Fund, and $200M Elev8 Growth Stage Fund.