Venture capital firm Unitus Ventures hires Sanjiv Rangrass and Raj Nooyi
- ByStartupStory | December 6, 2022
Sanjiv Rangrass, a seasoned ITC employee, has joined Unitus Ventures as a venture partner, the early-stage venture capital (VC) firm announced on December 6. For the upcoming fund, which will be introduced in early 2023, the company stated Rangrass will be in charge of its investment strategy in the climate sector. This is at a time when investors are becoming increasingly interested in climate technology startups.
Rangrass worked for ITC for 40 years, beginning as a trainee and eventually rising to the position of group head for research and development, sustainability, and projects. He retired from ITC in June of this year.
A mentor and active investor, he has an admirable history of funding unicorn companies including Zetwerk, OfBusiness, and BlackBuck. Rangrass was most recently appointed as an independent director to the board of Zetwerk.
“The world today has an estimated 8 billion people, and the greatest existential threat it faces is probably climate change. It’s still early in the industry’s development, but there is a lot of room for inventive new businesses to flourish and solve the problem at hand while also generating millions of jobs and investor value. In order to make Unitus the top climate investor in India, I am excited to work with the team, said Rangrass.
He has invested in a number of agritech start-ups, including, to mention a few, Vegrow, Absolute Foods, Krishify, Farmart, Loopworm, and AgNext. Rangrass also has investments in firms that are concerned with the environment, such as Metastable Materials and Wastelink.
According to Surya Mantha, managing partner of Unitus Ventures, “Rangy’s (as Sanjiv is affectionately known) substantial experience in agritech and sustainability will form the anchor for our investment approach in the Climate sector for our next Fund.”
Raj Nooyi has also joined as a Venture Advisor, according to the VC company. According to the venture capital firm, Nooyi is a former executive of firms like Hewlett Packard, PRTM, Tata Consultancy Services, and IBM where he oversaw the design, development, and application of solutions to enhance supply chains, speed up product innovation, and bring about organisational change on a global scale.
“Built in India, for the World’ is becoming the catchphrase in a number of industries, most notably SaaS. (Software as a Service). An abundance of technical expertise plus a sizable, competitive domestic market has equipped Indian start-ups and entrepreneurs to compete with the world’s greatest businesses. I’m eager to assist Unitus’ portfolio firms in growing and succeeding internationally”, said Nooyi.
According to the corporation, Nooyi has continued to be dedicated to social justice and global development and has worked with non-profit organisations including Plan International, where he served as the temporary CEO.
Raj provides extensive international operating experience, which will boost our portfolio companies in their quest to expand internationally, according to Mantha of Unitus.
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