Ratan Tata's mentorship role for e-commerce ventures grows

Works with Kalaari Capital to guide founders, takes stake in auto sales portal

Ratan Tata, 77, is growing younger after his retirement as Tata Group’s executive chairman two years earlier.

He seems to have struck a chord with a new breed of young entrepreneurs, whom he wants to mentor to help them take bigger challenges.

On Monday, he spent a day at Marriot Whitefield in Bengaluru, taking questions from portfolio companies of Kalaari Capital, after agreeing to an advisory role for the venture capital firm. The entity has made around 50 investments since 2006 in start-ups. These include Snapdeal, Bluestone and Urban Ladder, which also attracted investment from Tata himself in the past seven months. He has already been providing mentorship to these firms.

“It is heartening to see that a person of his stature has come out to help so many start-ups,” says Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, founder and chief executive at Bluestone, who attended the session with Tata. “He is very supportive of the cause of the start-up ecosystem, as he wants India to be the land of equal opportunities.”

Kushwaha has met Tata twice in the six months since the latter took a a stake in his company. Tata has made one more investment in an e-commerce venture, a minority stake in automobile classified portal CarDekho.com. He has also agreed to provide mentorship to CarDekho.

All these entrepreneurs are upbeat with his association. "He is still young at heart and wishes to be a part of the new India," says Rajesh Raju managing director at Kalaari Capital. Tata has agreed to mentor the portfolio companies of Kalaari and the portfolio founders, too. Kalaari has $350 million under management, with an advisory team in Bengaluru investing in early-stage, technology-oriented start-ups. "This is his way of participating in the growth of the new entrepreneurial ecosystem and help new entrepreneurs reach bigger heights."

Tata Group has also taken a cue, by planning to launch an e-commerce venture on the marketplace model. After assessing this for some time, it fast-tracked this by appointing Ashutosh Pandey, former chief operating officer at bookstore chain Landmark, as head. Sarvesh Dwivedi, who led the lifestyle division of eBay India, was also roped in.

E-commerce platforms for the group’s retail ventures Croma and Landmark could be merged once this is launched. This could put the group in competition with Snapdeal,  which Ratan Tata  mentors.