By Prarthana Mitra
Former Chairman of Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry, announced the launch of a brand new private equity venture on Wednesday. The formation of Mistry Ventures LLP arrives on the second anniversary of his ouster from Tata, following a long court battle with the leading conglomerate.
Mission statement
The 50-year-old entrepreneur intends for Mistry Ventures to ”provide strategic insights and advice to businesses, incubate new ventures and provide seed, early stage and growth capital to startups in India and globally,” according to an official statement. Elaborating on his vision with the new firm, Mistry reportedly said, “The intent to deliver profit with positive social impact will be embedded in each of the ventures we promote or partner with”.
According to the Irish business of Indian origin, Mistry Ventures will do more than just invest in companies. By interpreting some of the major global and local trends and understanding their impact on industries and companies, the new enterprise will act as an incubator for new businesses, besides forging partnerships and making investments across multiple sectors. “Mistry Ventures will focus on providing mentorship and infusing unique capability sets to help startups craft the appropriate business experiments needed to validate, scale and bring products and services faster to market,” he told the media.
Personnel
The newly-minted startup fund has managed to rope in Ashish Iyer, Senior Partner and previously Global Leader, Strategy Practice at the Boston Consulting Group to assume leadership of the firm. ”Ashish has worked with companies across sectors globally and brings deep expertise across domains and capabilities such as strategy, go-to-market, digital, innovation amongst others and I am very excited to have him on board,” the new CEO told the media shortly after the announcement.
Cyrus Mistry and his brother Shapoor Mistry who share the ownership of the family-held Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group, will jointly promote Mistry Ventures LLP. The 150-year-old Shapoorji Pallonji Group has a geographic reach in 60 countries across the world and a history of diverse services including engineering and construction, infrastructure, real estate, water, energy and financial services.
Looking back
Mistry’s new venture comes two years after he was booted out of Tata’s boardroom after serving as the Chairman of Tata Sons since 2012. Mistry did not leave with a whimper, instead, he sued the holding company of Tata’s salt-to-software empire over unlawfully sacking him, and several other issues with governance and corporate ethics.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius