Mr Prem Watsa, Mr Uday Kotak, and Ms Falguni Nayar receive the prestigious Chiratae Patrick J. McGovern Awards 2022
November 3, 2022
- Mr Prem Watsa, Chairman & CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited receives the ‘Global Lifetime Achievement Award’
- Mr Uday Kotak, MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, receives the ‘India Lifetime Achievement Award
- Ms Falguni Nayar, Founder of Nykaa receives the ‘Exceptional Entrepreneurial Achievement Award’
Bengaluru | October 12, 2022: Chiratae Ventures, India’s leading early-stage technology focused venture capital fund, with $1Bn under management and 125+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media & Tech, Healthtech, and Fintech, concluded its Annual General Meeting today. The evening that brought together the ecosystem witnessed the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards being received by business leaders and entrepreneurs for their outstanding achievements.
Mr Prem Watsa, Chairman & CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, received the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Global Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for contributing to India’s tech entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mr Uday Kotak, MD & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank received the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern India Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for the substantial impact he has made on the Indian banking industry. And Ms Falguni Nayar, Founder & CEO, Nykaa, received the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Exceptional Entrepreneurial Achievement Award 2022 for her outstanding achievements, growth and contribution towards the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards were instituted in 2016 to honour the legacy of Mr Patrick J. McGovern, the legendary Co-Founder and Chairman of International Data Group (IDG), the leading global tech-media company with over 200 magazines and 460 websites. Pat, as he is fondly known, set up IDG Technology Ventures and anchored funds in multiple countries, including India, China, the USA, Vietnam and Korea. He was one of the earliest venture capitalists to believe in emerging markets, and his support led to the formation of Chiratae Ventures (then IDG Ventures) in 2006. Chiratae Ventures instituted and named Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards in memory of their first investor, who passed away in 2016. The Awards celebrate individuals with exceptional contributions to business, entrepreneurship and economic impact.
Celebrating the recipients at the event, Sudhir Sethi, Founder & Chairman of Chiratae Ventures, said, “We have been celebrating exceptional leaders and entrepreneurs for the impact they have generated with the prestigious Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern awards every year. We are honoured to have Mr Prem Watsa, Mr Uday Kotak and Ms Falguni Nayar accept the awards for 2022.”
Commenting on the winners, Patrick McGovern, Trustee at the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation said, “My father believed in investing in new opportunities and markets in India. He was the anchor investor for the first three funds at Chiratae Ventures. I am delighted to present the recipients, and I wholeheartedly thank them for their contributions to the industry and the ecosystem.”
Mr Prem Watsa, Chairman & CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings, in his acceptance speech, mentioned, “It is a great honour to receive the Patrick J. McGovern Global Lifetime Achievement Award from Chiratae Ventures. I was very excited to learn about the work that Chiratae Ventures has done in the field of startups in India. It is indeed very heartening to learn that Indian startups make USD25 Bn in revenue and that this will ramp up to USD150 Bn in the next five years. This is fantastic and wonderful for these companies and for India as a country. India is the best country to invest in right now, with the right policies and leadership, it is truly India’s time under Prime Minister Modi.”
In his acceptance speech, Mr Uday Kotak, MD & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “I am honoured by the quality and eminence of the jury who has decided to give me this prestigious award. We all come from being a startup once upon a time. We started small, and then we had the opportunity to grow and build a firm. The journey of an entrepreneur is fascinating and Chiratae is focused on venture capital and early-stage support to entrepreneurs who have dreams. What is even more interesting is to see many of these companies flourish and become more sustainable companies over time.”
In her acceptance speech, Ms Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO, Nykaa said, “I am very grateful for the honour that this award bestows on me. As India’s leading early-stage tech focused VC fund, Chiratae has played a key role in developing several industries. Especially in its foundational premise, Chiratae’s focus on building an entrepreneurial growth mindset by developing scalable strategies is commendable. At present, the technology space and the startup environment in the country has evolved to the point of becoming truly mainstream. Across industries and businesses, entrepreneurs are creating new innovative solutions to resolve real problems. This is an exciting time to learn from and develop business models that use state-of-the-art technology, prioritising sustainability over short-term growth.”
Chiratae Ventures has been celebrating individuals with exceptional contributions to their respective domains through the Chiratae Ventures Patrick J. McGovern Awards. Some of the previous winners include:
- Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons
- Kris Gopalkrishnan, Founder and Former Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys
- Nandan Nilekani, Founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys
- Bruno Raschle, Non-Executive Vice Chairman, Schroder Adveq
- John T. Chambers, Former Executive Chairman and CEO, CISCO Systems
- Saurabh Srivastava, Entrepreneur, Policymaker and Former Chairman, NASSCOM
- Ashok Soota, Co-Founder, Mindtree and Happiest Minds Technologies.
- Desh Deshpande, Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur
- Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman of Infoedge and Co-founder Ashoka University
All the previous recipients become part of the jury that selects the following year’s recipients. This jury is chaired by Patrick McGovern, Trustee of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. The criteria for selection include an exceptional contribution to the Indian entrepreneurial and business ecosystem, Indian policymaking and driving risk capital investments to India.
About Chiratae Ventures:
Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors is India's leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures India Advisors collectively have close to $1Bn under management and 125+ investee companies across SaaS, Consumer Media & Tech, Health-tech, and Fin-tech. The fund has been an early backer of Cure.fit, FirstCry, Flipkart, Globalbees, Lenskart, Manthan, Myntra, PolicyBazaar and has invested in leaders like AgroStar, Bizongo,Bounce, Cropin, EarlySalary, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, Hevo Data, Pyxis, Uniphore Vayana, amongst others. Chiratae closed its fourth fund, oversubscribed at $337 million in 2021. The team has delivered value for its investors through the years with over 45 exits, 3 IPOs and 8 Unicorns, with more around the corner.
Chiratae Ventures backs stellar entrepreneurs disrupting or creating new ecosystems. With a team of over 30 professionals having a cumulative VC experience of 100+ years. Chiratae’s Global Advisory board consists of esteemed personalities such as Mr Ratan Tata (Chairman), Kris Gopalakrishnan, Manish Choksi (Vice Chairman Asian Paints), Bruno Raschle (Founder Adveq Zurich), Dr Andreas Hettich (Chairman Hettich Corporation Germany) and Dr Ferzaan Engineer (Founder Cytecare and Nightingale).