RebBus co-founder appointed Telangana's Chief Innovation Officer

The Telangana government has appointed co-founder of RedBus and serial entrepreneur Phanindra Sama as the Chief Innovation Officer for Telangana, who will work with educational institutions to foster an ecosystem of innovation in the state.

He was handed over the appointment letter at Secretariat on Friday by state IT minister KT Rama Rao.

Sama, who hails from Nizamabad in Telangana, is currently serving as a Patron in Kakatiya SandBox – a start-up focussed on an experimentation lab for people to work on solutions to local problems. He will head the Telangana State Innovation Cell and will work with schools and other education institutions, in the rural areas.


The Cell will also focus on bringing the start-up ecosystem closer by promoting a "State as a whole Approach" as opposed to concentrating start-up activity in one location by enabling co-working spaces and incubators across the state to upgrade themselves.

A graduate in electrical engineering from BITS Pilani and a post-graduation from Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Sama co-founded RedBus, India’s first online bus ticket booking service in 2006. He stayed with the company for eight years as the chief executive which was acquired by Naspers, a South African investment firm, for Rs 780 crore.