CYRUS MISTRY FLOATS VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM
Cyrus P Mistry, the Shapoorji Pallonji scion who was unceremoniously removed from the top job at Tata Sons on this day exactly two years ago, signalled a new beginning on Wednesday.
This would be via the formation of Mistry Ventures LLP, a venture capital (VC) entity. The new company stated it would be providing strategic insight and advice to businesses, incubating new ventures and providing seed, early stage and growth capital to start-ups in India and abroad.
Ashish Iyer, senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group, will head the firm. He has worked with companies across sectors globally and brings deep expertise across domains and capabilities, Mistry said.
The company, he added, had been established with “the intent to deliver profit with positive social impact”. This will be embedded in each of the ventures it promotes or partners with.
“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,” said Mistry. "It will incubate new businesses, forge partnerships and make investments across sectors. It will focus on providing mentorship and infusing unique capability sets to help start-ups craft the appropriate business experiments needed to validate, scale and bring products and services faster to market."
To begin with, it has identified companies and will be investing in the sectors of health care, automobiles and e-commerce, among others, said a person familiar with the company’s plan. Expect further announcements once Iyer joins next month and starts building his team, the person added.
Mistry Ventures has been jointly promoted by Shapoor Mistry and Cyrus Mistry, promoters of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, a globally diversified conglomerate with a history of around 150 years. The Group operates in the engineering and construction, infrastructure, real estate, water, energy and financial services sectors, with a presence in over 60 countries.
Since his ouster as chairman of Tata Sons, Mistry has been engaged in a legal battle with the holding company over his removal, on corporate governance and issues pertaining to ethics. The fight has moved to the appellate tribunal of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Delhi. This July, the Mumbai bench of NCLT dismissed the petition of Mistry family firms against Tata Sons and its directors.