Bessemer Appoints Pankaj Mitra as Partner to Lead India Investments in AI, Enterprise Tech
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners has announced the appointment of tech industry veteran Pankaj Mitra as a Partner in its India practice, underscoring its continued commitment to backing the next generation of technology leaders in the region.
Mitra will focus primarily on enterprise tech, artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity.
Mitra brings over 25 years of industry experience to Bessemer, having previously led investments and M&A efforts at Cisco's corporate development team, particularly for its global Customer Experiences portfolio and Indian operations. His impressive investment track record includes stakes in companies such as Fiddler (AI observability), Uniphore (contact center AI), and Whatfix (digital adoption).
"I am thrilled to join Bessemer at this pivotal time," said Mitra. "The ongoing AI platform shift offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity for builders to usher in the next wave of tech evolution across industries. With its stellar track record, Bessemer is poised to partner with this new generation of ambitious, world-class founders in India addressing pain points domestically and globally, and I'm excited to be part of this journey."
Prior to Cisco, Mitra was part of Infosys's USD 500 million innovation fund, where he invested in firms like Ideaforge and Whoop. His early career includes roles at VMware, where he helped launch its first cloud services, and at Deloitte as a management consultant. Mitra holds a degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Vishal Gupta, Partner at Bessemer, said, "We are delighted to welcome Pankaj to the Bessemer family. He brings a breadth of experience which is a unique blend of investing prowess as well as deep industry knowledge. This will be invaluable as we look to deepen our commitments in AI, enterprise-tech, and cybersecurity in India."
Bessemer Venture Partners, with over USD 18 billion in assets under management, has backed iconic global companies including LinkedIn, Shopify, Twilio, DocuSign, and Toast. In India, the firm has been active for over two decades, with past and current investments in Swiggy, Urban Company, Boldfit, Easebuzz, and others.
In March 2025, Bessemer announced its second India-focused fund of USD 350 million, targeting areas such as AI, fintech, enterprise-tech, digital health, and cybersecurity—sectors directly aligned with Mitra's expertise.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
In India, Trump's tariffs spark calls to boycott American goods
By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) -From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, U.S.-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India as business executives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's supporters stoke anti-American sentiment to protest against U.S. tariffs. India, the world's most populous nation, is a key market for American brands that have rapidly expanded to target a growing base of affluent consumers, many of whom remain infatuated with international labels seen as symbols of moving up in life. India, for example, is the biggest market by users for Meta's WhatsApp and Domino's has more restaurants than any other brand in the country. Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts. Although there was no immediate indication of sales being hit, there's a growing chorus both on social media and offline to buy local and ditch American products after Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on goods from India, rattling exporters and damaging ties between New Delhi and Washington. McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters queries. Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of India's Wow Skin Science, took to LinkedIn with a video message urging support for farmers and startups to make "Made in India" a "global obsession," and to learn from South Korea whose food and beauty products are famous worldwide. "We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we don't own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country," he said. Rahm Shastry, CEO of India's DriveU, which provides a car driver on call service, wrote on LinkedIn: "India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB -- like China has." To be fair, Indian retail companies give foreign brands like Starbucks stiff competition in the domestic market, but going global has been a challenge. Indian IT services firms, however, have become deeply entrenched in the global economy, with the likes of TCS and Infosys providing software solutions to clients world over. On Sunday, Modi made a "special appeal" for becoming self-reliant, telling a gathering in Bengaluru that Indian technology companies made products for the world but "now is the time for us to give more priority to India's needs." He did not name any company. DON'T DRAG MY MCPUFF INTO IT Even as anti-American protests simmer, Tesla launched its second showroom in India in New Delhi, with Monday's opening attended by Indian commerce ministry officials and U.S. embassy officials. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch group, which is linked to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, took out small public rallies across India on Sunday, urging people to boycott American brands. "People are now looking at Indian products. It will take some time to fructify," Ashwani Mahajan, the group's co-convenor, told Reuters. "This is a call for nationalism, patriotism." He also shared with Reuters a table his group is circulating on WhatsApp, listing Indian brands of bath soaps, toothpaste and cold drinks that people could choose over foreign ones. On social media, one of the group's campaigns is a graphic titled "Boycott foreign food chains", with logos of McDonald's and many other restaurant brands. In Uttar Pradesh, Rajat Gupta, 37, who was dining at a McDonald's in Lucknow on Monday, said he wasn't concerned about the tariff protests and simply enjoyed the 49-rupee ($0.55) coffee he considered good value for money. "Tariffs are a matter of diplomacy and my McPuff, coffee should not be dragged into it," he said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia, AMD to pay US 15% of China AI chip sales in unusual move
(Bloomberg) — Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) agreed to pay 15% of their revenues from Chinese AI chip sales to the US government in a deal to secure export licenses, an unusual arrangement that may unnerve both US companies and Beijing. Sunseeking Germans Face Swiss Backlash Over Alpine Holiday Congestion New York Warns of $34 Billion Budget Hole, Biggest Since 2009 Crisis Three Deaths Reported as NYC Legionnaires' Outbreak Spreads A New Stage for the Theater That Gave America Shakespeare in the Park Chicago Schools' Bond Penalty Widens as $734 Million Gap Looms Nvidia plans to share 15% of the revenue from sales of its H20 AI accelerator in China, according to a person familiar with the matter. AMD will deliver the same share from MI308 revenues, the person added, asking for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The arrangement reflects US President Donald Trump's consistent effort to engineer a financial payout for America in return for concessions on trade. His administration has shown a willingness to relax trade conditions like tariffs in return for giant investment in the US — as with Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) pledge to spend $600 billion on domestic manufacturing. But such a narrow, select export tax has little precedent in modern corporate history. Beijing, which has grown increasingly hostile to the idea of Chinese firms deploying the H20, is unlikely to warm to the idea of a chip tax. Yuyuantantian, a social media account affiliated with state-run China Central Television that regularly signals Beijing's thinking about trade, on Sunday slammed the chip's supposed security vulnerabilities and inefficiency. 'This seeming quid pro quo is unprecedented from an export control perspective. The arrangement risks invalidating the national security rationale for U.S. export controls,' said Jacob Feldgoise, a researcher at the DC-based Center for Security and Emerging Technology. It 'will likely undermine the US' position when negotiating with allies to implement complementary controls,' he added. 'Allies may not believe U.S. policymakers if they are willing to trade away those same national security concerns for economic concessions — either from U.S. companies or foreign governments.' An Nvidia spokesperson said the company follows US export rules, adding that while it hasn't shipped H20 chips to China for months, it hopes the rules will allow US companies to compete in China. AMD didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The Financial Times earlier reported the development. It followed a separate report from the same outlet that the Commerce Department had begun issuing H20 licenses last week, days after Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang met with Trump. Huang has lobbied long and hard for the lifting of restrictions, arguing that walling China off will only slow the spread of American technology and encourage local rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co. 'It's a strategic bargaining chip' that tightens Washington's grip on a critical tech sphere during trade negotiations with China, said Hebe Chen, an analyst with Vantage Markets in Melbourne. 'Over time, this hurdle for chips entering China will likely deter Nvidia and AMD from deeper expansion in the world's largest chip-importing market, while giving local Chinese producers a clear edge to capture market share and accelerate domestic semiconductor innovation.' If Washington goes ahead with the tax, it should funnel some capital to the US — but not an enormous amount in relative terms. Both Nvidia and AMD have said it'll take time to ramp back up production of their China-specific products — even if order levels return to previous levels, which is uncertain. Nvidia raked in $4.6 billion of revenue from the H20 in the fiscal quarter ended April 27 — days after new restrictions on shipping the AI accelerator to China were imposed. It also said it had been unable to ship $2.5 billion of H20 China revenue in that period because of the new rules. That implies it would have got more than $7 billion in H20 sales to China during the period. If it can return to that level, the US government will stand to get about a billion dollars a quarter from its deal. AMD could generate $3 billion to $5 billion of 2025 revenue if restrictions were lifted, Morgan Stanley estimates. Chinese alternatives such as Huawei's Ascend chips now account for 20% to 30% of domestic demand, it reckoned. 'The US government clearly needs the money given its deficits and eagerness to collect tariffs,' said Vey-Sern Ling, managing director at Union Bancaire Privee in Singapore. 'But the complication is China's accusations about H20 chips containing backdoors, which could be a negotiation tactic to highlight that the country is not 'hard up' for US chips.' —With assistance from Debby Wu, Winnie Hsu, Jessica Sui, Wendy Benjaminson, Kevin Whitelaw, Shadab Nazmi and Yasufumi Saito. The Game Starts at 8. The Robbery Starts at 8:01 The Pizza Oven Startup With a Plan to Own Every Piece of the Pie Digital Nomads Are Transforming Medellín's Housing It's Only a Matter of Time Until Americans Pay for Trump's Tariffs Russia's Secret War and the Plot to Kill a German CEO ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign up for the Yahoo Finance Morning Brief By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Sign in to access your portfolio
Entrepreneur
6 minutes ago
- Entrepreneur
Neuralzome Cybernetic Raises USD 2.4 Mn to Expand Robotic Solutions
The pre-seed funding round was led by 8X Ventures, along with Turbostart, Avinya Ventures, Saka Ventures, Appreciate Capital, Astir Ventures, IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE, SIDBI, and investor Heston Castelino. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Neuralzome Cybernetic, a Bengaluru-based deeptech startup, has secured USD 2.4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by 8X Ventures, along with Turbostart, Avinya Ventures, Saka Ventures, Appreciate Capital, Astir Ventures, IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE, SIDBI, and investor Heston Castelino. The funding will be directed towards research and development in multi-agent autonomy and vision-based navigation, scaling manufacturing, and expanding into North American and European markets. "We are developing technologies that overcome key challenges blocking the adoption of robots in real-world scenarios," said Mohan Sivam, Co-founder of Neuralzome Cybernetic. He noted the company's mission to make robotic solutions accessible for everyday use. Founded in 2023, Neuralzome designs teachable, no-code AI agents for real-world autonomy, enabling rapid robot deployment without specialised in-house robotics skills. The startup operates on a Robot-as-a-Service model, targeting labour-intensive sectors such as orchard management and commercial landscaping. Its main product, NeuralPilot, integrates with the RedPill simulation platform to generate photorealistic digital twins, facilitating complex training and reducing the cost and time required for on-field operations.
