Courses & Events
India Entrepreneurship Update: Unicorns, space tech, and venture investing
Tuesday, Apr 19, 2022
05:30 pm - 07:00 pm
This session in our weekly seminar series on the newest trends in entrepreneurship and its supporting ecosystems in major Asia economies explores the rapid increase in unicorns, the emergence of advanced deep tech solutions for world markets, and related venture trends in India.
Details
Seminars will take place on Tuesdays from March 29th – May 31st. These sessions are open to the public and registration is required to receive the Zoom login details.
All seminars will be held online via Zoom, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM, with informal networking following until about 7:30 PM (PST).
Register in advance for this seminar series: https://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
*You may cancel your registration at any time and attend only the sessions you wish.
Speakers
Paula Mariwala
Founding Partner, Aureolis Ventures, and Founder & Co-President, Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India
Paula Mariwala is the Founding Partner of the VC firm Aureolis Ventures, Founder & Co-President of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India, and Managing Director of Seedfund Advisors, which invests in seed and early stage companies in India. She is also Promoter Director of Hinditron Group of Companies, one of India’s oldest technology companies. Paula is an active impact investor from her family office and also runs Hinditron Foundation which supports tech enabled innovations to promote “Better Life” through technology.
Awais Ahmed
Founder & CEO, Pixxel
Awais Ahmed is the founder and CEO of Pixxel, a space-technology startup building a constellation of high-resolution hyperspectral imaging small-satellites. These cutting-edge hyperspectral satellites will measure the health of our planet every 24 hours at a 50x higher detail compared to other satellite constellations.
Awais founded Pixxel in 2019 at the age of 21 while still pursuing undergraduate studies in India, with the vision of establishing a global space company working on bringing the benefits of space down to earth.
Awais was previously one of the founding members and the engineering lead at Hyperloop India, the only Indian and one of the 24 global finalist teams in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, where they built India’s first-ever hyperloop pod and presented it to Elon Musk.
Gaurav Munjal
Co-Founder & CEO, Unacademy
Gaurav Munjal is the Co-Founder & CEO of Unacademy – India’s largest learning platform.
In 2010, while still in college, Gaurav started Unacademy as an educational YouTube channel to help his college mates with lessons. His method and medium of teaching became very popular among his peers, leading to the formal launch of Unacademy in 2015.
In a short span, Unacademy has made a deep impact on the lives of millions of learners in India. Today, the Unacademy Group includes group companies such as Unacademy, Graphy, CodeChef and Relevel. In 2020, Gaurav steered the Unacademy Group to become a Unicorn start-up in India.
His first entrepreneurial venture Flat.to (acquired by CommonFloor.com), a real estate platform for college students and bachelors across India, was launched in 2013.
Gaurav’s vision to democratise access to education for everyone led to the launch of Unacademy. He has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2018, as is recognized as an innovator and young achiever by several prominent publications.
Gaurav is deeply passionate about technology, and building world-class products. He holds a B.Tech degree in Computer Science from NMIMS University, Mumbai.
Dr. Richard Dasher
Director, US-Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University
Dr. Richard Dasher has directed the US-Asia Technology Management Center since 1994. From 1998 – 2017, he served concurrently as Executive Director of the Center for Integrated Systems (now Stanford System X Alliance). Dr. Dasher was the first non-Japanese person asked to join the governance of a Japanese national university, serving on the Board of Directors and Management Council of Tohoku University 2004 – 2011. He is currently active as an advisor or board director for nonprofits, government S&T funding programs, venture capital firms, accelerators, and startup companies in several Asia countries, Canada, and the U.S.
