Chiratae Ventures honours Narayana Murthy, Infosys Founder, Adobe Chair and CEO, Shantanu Narayen, and Postman CEO and Founder, Abhinav Asthana with the Patrick J. McGovern Awards
OCT 15, 2024
October 15th, 2024, Bangalore – The 18-year-old global technology venture capital fund, Chiratae Ventures, announced the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards for 2024. An annual tradition, this year Chiratae honours Narayana Murthy, Founder of Infosys Limited with the India Lifetime Achievement Award, Shantanu Narayen, Chair and CEO, Adobe with the Global Lifetime Achievement Award and Abhinav Asthana, CEO and Founder, Postman with the Exceptional Entrepreneurial Achievement Award.
Chiratae Ventures is one of India’s largest homegrown VC funds, having advised funds that collectively (across seven funds) have $1.3 billion AUM, 130+ investments, 56 exits, 8 Unicorns, 4 IPOs and a track record of having returned approximately $900 million to LPs. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India have investments across sectors such as ConsumerTech, SaaS, FinTech, and HealthTech and have been early backers of companies such as Curefoods, Cult.fit, Fibe, FirstCry, Flipkart, Lenskart, Myntra, Pixis, PolicyBazaar and Uniphore, among many others.
Established in 2016, the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards commemorate Patrick J. McGovern, anchor investor of Chiratae’s first fund and the founder of International Data Group (IDG). Patrick J. McGovern was a visionary leader who played a pivotal role in shaping global technology media and expanding the global footprint of IDG’s network. His belief in India’s tech entrepreneurial potential was instrumental in the formation of Chiratae Ventures in 2006. Throughout his career, he nurtured a deep passion for people, technology, and publishing, leaving a lasting impact on the industry. As a philanthropist, McGovern’s legacy continues to inspire innovation and progress.
“The influence of Patrick J. McGovern cannot be overstated; he was not only the anchor investor for this venture firm but also a pivotal figure in India’s technology ecosystem,” said Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures. “We are honored to recognize the extraordinary contributions of Narayana Murthy, Shantanu, and Abhinav with the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern awards. These leaders exemplify a unique combination of technology vision, business acumen, world-class engineering, ethical stewardship, and entrepreneurial talent.”
L-R -Mandeep Julka (VP, FinTech Lead, Chiratae Ventures), Sudhir Sethi (Chairman and Founder, Chiratae Ventures), Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys Limited, TC Meenakshisundaram (Founder and Vice Chairman, Chiratae Ventures) and Tanvi Dubey (Head-Marketing, Chiratae Ventures)
The India Lifetime Achievement Award honors exceptional leaders in India who have built and scaled organizations that have had a substantial impact on their respective industries. For 2024, this award was presented to Narayana Murthy during a ceremony in Bengaluru, India. Infosys was the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ in 1999. Under Murthy’s leadership, Infosys has led the largest experiment in the democratization of wealth in India by distributing over 19% of Infosys equity to its employees.
“I am very grateful to Chiratae Ventures, to Sudhir and his team for this kindness, generosity, and affection in awarding me the Lifetime Achievement Award named after Patrick J. McGovern. I am doubly happy that I am in the company of some extraordinary personalities like John Chambers, Indra Nooyi, Azim Premji, late Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani, and Kris Gopalakrishnan among many other distinguished people,” shared Narayana Murthy, Founder of Infosys Limited as he accepted this honour.
L-R: MR Rangaswami (Founder, Indiaspora), Shantanu Narayen (Chair and CEO, Adobe), Dr. Srikar Reddy (Indian Consul General, San Francisco), Pat McGovern III (Chairman of the Board, The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation), and Sudhir Sethi (Chairman and Founder, Chiratae Ventures).
The Global Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates the impact of global leaders on India’s tech entrepreneurial ecosystem. Shantanu Narayen’s nearly 20-year leadership of Adobe through changing technological periods personifies the role of a global leader. He has successfully led the transformation of the company from desktop to the cloud world, and its venturing into the digital experiences category. Accepting the award Shantanu Narayen, Chair and CEO, Adobe, shared, “The Chiratae McGovern award is really about Adobe and the work of our 30,000 employees. We’ve always believed that innovation is at our core, customers are at the centre of everything that we do and are central to our success. This award is really a testament in many ways to the power of technology to drive change and drive change for good.”
L-R: MR Rangaswami, Founder, Indiaspora, with Abhinav Asthana, Co-Founder and CEO, Postman (Award Recipient), and Pat McGovern III, Chairman of the Board of The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.
The Exceptional Entrepreneurial Achievement Award celebrates the growing depth and breadth of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and appreciates the impact that first-generation founders are having. Under Abhinav’s leadership, Postman has set the industry standard for API testing, development, and collaboration, and his relentless focus on innovation has made Postman the most valued Indian Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup. Abhinav Asthana while accepting the award shared, “I am incredibly honored to receive this award from Chiratae Ventures. An entrepreneur’s journey is never run alone—I owe this to my fantastic co-founders, amazing employees, incredible customers, supportive investors, and, of course, my parents and family, who have stood by me through my growth as an engineer and entrepreneur. This recognition belongs to all of them.”
These recipients were selected through a detailed screening process in collaboration with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (DTTILLP), the process advisor for the Chiratae McGovern Awards. This year’s honorees join an illustrious group of past winners, including John Chambers, former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems; Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys; Uday Kotak, Founder, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO Pepsico; Azim Premji, Founder and Chairman, Wipro; late Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons and Tata Group; Prem Watsa, Chairman and CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings, amongst other eminent personalities.
“My father believed in the power of timely, provocative, and accurate information to empower people to improve society and to create a more connected world. With that in mind, the companies, and technologies that Shantanu, Abhinav and Narayana built or nurtured make them an extremely worthy recipient of this year’s awards,” said Pat McGovern III, Chairman of the Board of The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Chair of the Jury of the Awards, and Regional Advisor (US), Chiratae Ventures.