More Than Money Talk: Ritesh Agarwal, Rashmi Daga Thank The 'Angels' Who Matter

It ain’t only about getting the funds. ET Startup Awards 2018 winners express words of gratitude to the angels who have invested in — and helped build — their dreams.

In Pic: OYO's Ritesh Agarwal and FreshMenu's Rashmi Daga.

“Masayoshi Son, CEO, SoftBank. For the past three years, both he and SoftBank have been a source of ceaseless support for us.”

- Ritesh Agarwal Founder, OYO

“Two individuals — Dr Sujay Prasad, medical director, Anand Diagnostic Lab, and Dr AS Arvind, director, Milann Fertility Centre — mentored, advised and helped us in different ways. They were available whenever we needed them.”

- Rohit Kumar Pandey, Cofounder, SigTuple

“Bejul Somaia from Lightspeed India is more than an investor. He has been a strong sounding board and someone who asks the right questions. The advice, because it comes from outside the company, has been very valuable.”

- Rashmi Daga Founder, FreshMenu

In Pic: Rashmi Daga receives the trophy from Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog and Satyajeet Singh, head of platform partnerships, Facebook India and South Asia.


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“Ashish Goel, founder, Urban Ladder, Satheesh Kumar KR, founder, Enzen Global, and the IKP team, where we are currently located. Mrinal [Pai, cofounder] and I met Ashish back in 2014. He mentored us during some of our most difficult times. We met Satheesh almost 10 months after starting and connected instantly. IKP’s Deepanwita Chattopadhyay (chairman) and Vikraman Venua (CEO, IKP Eden) have always been great to us. We were the first startup to be present at IKP Eden and it was one of our best decisions.”

- Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy CEO, Skylark Drones


In Pic: Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy and Mrinal Pai, co-founders of Skylark Drones

“Aditya Sharma, who was then with Lok Capital. He would give sound advice on the operational side when we were piloting a lot of things. He was an investor who helped us grow and reach where we are today.”

- Kiran Anandampillai Founder, Drishti Eyecare

In Pic: Kiran Anandampillai, Anjali Joshi and Rajesh Babu B of Drishti Eyecare receive the Social Enterprise Award from Rishad Premji, Chief Strategy Officer, Wipro.

“Ashish Gupta (cofounder, Junglee and Helion), Mukesh Bansal (founder, Myntra), Dhiraj Rajaram (founder, Mu-Sigma), Kalyan Krishnamurthy (CEO, Flipkart). All are friends and mutual confidants. Having [the support of] such people, I am never stuck.”

- Subrata Mitra Partner, Accel Partners

“Aditya Sharma, who was then with Lok Capital. He would give sound advice on the operational side when we were piloting a lot of things. He was an investor who helped us grow and reach where we are today.”

- Kiran Anandampillai Founder, Drishti Eyecare


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“While our investors have been amazing, most of the hard lifting is done by our core team that has been with us since the beginning. They not only handle the day-today, but also make sure that Saurabh [Kumar, cofounder] and I don’t make any decisions that are going to be bad for us in the longterm. You succeed or fail on the basis of your entire team, not just one individual.”

- Albinder Dhindsa Cofounder, Grofers