Meet the Team

Ankur is co-founder of Emergent Ventures. Previously, Ankur was a venture investor at Nexus Venture Partners investing in US and India. Prior to that, Ankur was venture investor at Blumberg Capital investing in US and Israel. Prior to that, Ankur did strategy consulting at Accenture across a range of verticals including healthcare, financial services and technology. Earlier, Ankur led product teams at Andiamo Systems and later Cisco which acquired Andiamo in 2004. Prior to that, Ankur held engineering roles at Softaware Networks and later at Digital Island, which acquired Softaware Networks in 2000. Ankur is also co-founder of Vama, an eco-technology company.

Ankur's selected investments include Mertado (acquired by Groupon), Cyvera (acquired by Palo Alto Networks), Mobsmith (acquired by Rubicon Project), BringIT (acquired by International Gaming Technologies) and Arkin (acquired by VMWare).

Ankur holds a Bachelors in in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Delhi, a Masters in Computer Science from UCLA, and an MBA in Management from the Wharton School where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. Ankur is also a co-inventor for five technology patents. Ankur is Chair for TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) San Francisco.

Alok is a Partner at Emergent Ventures. Previously, Alok ran a product strategy consulting firm advising a number of high growth startups. Prior to that, Alok was a Director of Product at TempoAI and later at Salesforce which acquired TempoAI in 2016. Earlier, Alok led product teams at YuMe (IPO: NYSE) where he joined at an early stage and experienced its evolution into a public company. Prior to that, Alok held multiple product management roles at Microsoft, with the last one in Windows Azure. Alok was also co-founder of ToneThis a mobile technology startup.

Alok holds a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, a Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA. Alok is also a co-inventor for three technology patents.

Aditya Nishtala is a digital and social media marketing strategist. He has founded a boutique digital media agency called Coolfire and helps brands leverage technology to market them, in turn helping them transform digitally and grow their business.

Prior to founding Coolfire, Aditya has worked as a marketer in residence with leading organizations and helped them build sustainable digital presence on the internet. Having worked across various sectors like lifestyle, education, retail, technology and non-profits, he advises companies on digital business design, digital transformation and social media marketing.

Rahul Chandra is a co-founder and Managing Director of Helion and has 17 years of venture capital investing and corporate development experience in technology product and services companies in India and the US. He serves on the Boards of Seclore, Shubham, UnitedLex, Netambit, Mindworks and manages investments in Cucumber Town, EzeTap, Spandana and Equitas.

Between 2000 and 2006, Rahul was based in Silicon Valley as part of the investment team at Walden International, a global venture capital firm with more than $2B under management. Between 2004 and 2005 he also led the M&A efforts at e4e Inc., a Santa Clara, CA based BPO company with more than 4,000 employees across the globe.

Rahul started Venture Capital investing in 1996 in India as the first hire at Walden's India office. In this role he managed investments for Walden's India dedicated Fund between 1996 and 2000.

Rahul has invested in more than 30 early-to-mid-stage companies such as Mindtree, Ikanos (IKAN), e4e Inc and Techspan (Headstrong). Prior to Walden, he worked in the Capital Markets Group at Lazard India, and in the Primary Market Department at the Securities Exchange Board of India.

Rahul has an MBA from University of California, Berkeley and graduated from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani in 1993.

Indra is a venture partner at Emergent Ventures. He brings over 30 years of broad experience in the technology industry. His proficiency is in grooming startups from inception through product development on to revenue. Indra enjoys implementing best practices for hands-off operation of scalable business processes across multiple functional areas that include legal, operations, contract negotiations, M&A, finance, accounting, HR, compensation and corporate governance. Indra helps Emergent Ventures’ portfolio companies leverage his experience to drive high quality execution and operational excellence.

Indra started at AMD in the late ‘80s and then transitioned to technical marketing at SynOptics (later Bay Networks). With two other colleagues from Bay Networks, Indra co-founded his first startup in 1995. In 1999, Indra joined the newly formed Bell Labs Silicon Valley in Palo Alto. In 2001, as CFO of Lightbit, an optical networking startup, Indra successfully navigated the carnage of the telecom bust. Indra has provided operational and strategic guidance to founders and CEOs at startups in varied sectors such as networking, semiconductor materials, medical devices, and biotech.

Indra holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a Master's from Penn State University. He volunteers as a mentor at Everwise. Indra holds a Yoga Alliance RYT-200 certification, teaches at Yoga Bharati, and serves as CFO to the IIT Bay Area Alumni non-profit. He is a self-proclaimed early adopter, gadget junkie, solar enthusiast, EV driver, and an avid hiker.