Padmaja Ruparel is nationally recognized as a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and has helped co found many of the relevant institutions, besides being an active Angel investor herself. Her operating experience spans large corporates, M&A, and startups/early stage companies.
She co founded and is President of Indian Angel Network (IAN), India's first and now possibly one of the world’s largest group of business angels, comprising the who's who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from India and overseas. She built IAN from inception,making it within 9years a unique institution globally,withover 350 investors across 10 countriesand a portfolio of 100+ companies in 7 countries, spanning 16 sectors. She has operationalisedIAN’s international operations in London – making it the only angel group in the world to set up operations outside of its home country. She has also established a unique model of an incubator, in partnership with the Indian Government, which leverages 400 mentors to provide mentoring & domain expertise to around 50 young fledgling incubatee companies.
She is a member of the Governing Council of EM3 Services, a nation building venture seeking to create a paradigm shift in the Indian agricultural sector by improving productivity. She helped the company raisefunds from an international Venture Capital fund and is actively involved in its strategy and growth. She is a Non Executive Director on the board of Omaxe Ltd, India’s leading real estate development companies with a footprint across 9 States & 30 cities in India, having delivered more than 90 million sq. ft. and with a topline of over Rs. 1800 crores.
Padmaja is widely recognized for her significant contribution to the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Apart from cofounding IAN, she also set up and operationalised the Delhi chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) the world’s largest organization focused on entrepreneurship with 15,000 members in 60 chapters across 14 countries. TiE Delhi has been ranked as the Number One chapter globally for the last 4 consecutive years. She played a key role as Executive Director in building the Indian Venture Capital Association, India's oldest and largest association of VC and PE firms. In addition she helped the creation of Lankan Angel Network in Sri Lanka. She contributed actively in the Planning Commission’s Committee on “Angel & Early Stage Investing in India” which resulted in a seminal report: “Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Eco system in India”. She is on the Committee of Telecom Centre of Excellence, Selection Committee of MSME and is actively engaged with the various committees of Ministry of Finance, SEBI, etc.
In her corporate avatar at Xansa India, (Xansa wasa US$800mn company listed on LSE before being acquired bySteria), she led several functions over a 16 year period : handled recruitment operations, built and successfully executed an innovative brand and communication strategy and led the corporate social responsibility initiative which engaged employees, clients as also the government. She was a key member of the corporate strategy and M&A team as the Company went public, forged joint ventures and the final acquisitionof the Indian company.