Niren Shah is the manging director of Northwest Venture Partners India. Niren is focused on India-based investments in the consumer Internet, digital media, next-generation services and mobile sectors.
Prior to joining NVP, Niren was the Senior Director of Strategy and Ventures at eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) in California, where he helped drive the worldwide strategy across eBay’s Global Marketplaces. Niren was also part of the Marketplaces Ventures leadership team, where he was responsible for considering new business opportunities, acquisitions and potential investments across the Global Marketplaces. The Marketplaces business unit is eBay’s largest business unit and conducts gross merchandise volume of more than $50 billion annually.
Prior to this role, Niren served as Director of eBay Inc.’s New Ventures business unit with responsibility for the Americas. The New Ventures group was responsible for several investments and acquisitions such as Craigslist, Skype, Shopping.com, Rent.com, and also incubated Kijiji.com (eBay’s global classifieds business).
Previously, Niren was a part of the original management team of Baazee.com based in Mumbai, India. Baazee was India’s largest shopping website and raised more than $21 million of venture capital from investors such as News Corp. and ICICI Ventures. Niren joined Baazee in 2000 and was instrumental in taking the company through its entire lifecycle, from nurturing the business to a successful strategic sale to eBay. During his tenure, Niren served as CFO and Director of Operations, where he seeded and significantly grew Baazee’s B2B and Payments businesses. He also led several customer-centric areas such as product management, user experience and customer service. Post Baazee’s sale to eBay, Niren successfully led Baazee’s integration and platform migration into eBay.
Before joining Baazee, Niren was part of the early team at KPMG India’s Corporate Finance arm, where he was responsible for managing M&A; transactions in the Technology, Media and Telecom verticals.
Earlier in his career, Niren was a registered equity trader with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), where his responsibilities included equity dealing, market making and institutional deals on the BSE trading floor.
Niren obtained his Masters in Commerce from University of Mumbai where he was the recipient of the “University of Mumbai Gold Medal” and the “M.A. Master Gold Medal” for standing first across the University of Mumbai. Niren is also a rank-holder Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Niren graduated from Sydenham College and was the recipient of the United Bank of India scholarship as part of the Bachelors program.
With early investments in superior talent and its innovative platforms, the company has completely transformed its business. Today, it is well positioned to capture a much larger share of digital media within some of the fastest growing markets in the world.In Komli Media raises $39M from Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus, Helion & others
The company has managed to scale its business significantly because of its early-mover advantage, the strength of its experienced team of professionals hailing from the Internet and retail industries and the company's strong supplier relationships.In Fashionandyou.com Raises $40M; Norwest, Intel Cap Lead Round
Such a strategy tends to be more successful at seed stage or at incubation, where it is the survival of the fittest.In Venture funds shift attention to seed investments
Certain stages - such as e-commerce - are better invested in early on due to a skewed risk-reward offering.In Big investors like Jigsee eyeing emerging markets like BRIC
We're excited about the potential of early and late stage internet investments in India.In Rs1.5 cr fund for online ad firm Komli Media
They have a pedigree management team that has run big teams before. Komli has been able to demonstrate two products and have been able to scale up in different countries. The ability to scale up and build a good company is what we like. This round will help them meet growth expectations.In Komli Media Raises $15M In Norwest-Led Round
The online advertising market is Rs 10,00 crore which is 3-4% of the overall ad market. Advertisers in FMCG and automotive industry are looking to increase their investments so we will see more dollars going there. Komli is well positioned to grow. Their differentiator is a service-oriented culture, deep technology and ability to grow.In Komli Media Raises $15M In Norwest-Led Round
In India, such moves are just about beginning to happen. In the US, it is commonplace.In Probing minds of honchos who quit ... only to start afresh
Hiring from the industry happens at two stages. One is at the venture capitalists' entry level, when he feels there is a need to restructure the management team of the investee company. The other is 3-4 years down the line when the founder and the board feel there is a need to hire a top professional to scale the business.In Probing minds of honchos who quit ... only to start afresh
