51 - 150 in alphabetical order of CVC unit: Sameer Kenkare, head of corporate venture capital and corporate innovation, and managing principal, startup business development, Amazon Web Services
Sameer Kenkare has led the corporate venture capital and corporate innovation business development group as a part of the startup organisation at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing division of US-based e-commerce group Amazon, since 2017.
The startups group at AWS is a programme of more than 1,000 former entrepreneurs, operators and investors that help hundreds of thousands of startups solve technical challenges, hire the right engineers, finalise their fundraising round, scale their business and help them succeed, from inception to initial public offering (IPO).
Kenkare is responsible for developing and executing on a global strategy to put Amazon’s powers to work on behalf of venture capitalists (VCs), corporate VCs and their portfolio startups. Kenkare also builds and scales startup vertical segments across travel, hospitality, energy, power and utilities for Amazon.
Among the businesses recently supported by AWS are Arkangel AI, a business which uses artificial intelligence to research disease prevention, blockchain verification platform Cincel and NatureDots, a climate-tech firm based in India.
Before joining Amazon, Kenkare co-founded and led the Fintech Innovation Group at American Express, where he was responsible for driving innovation for the global commercial payments division through strategic partnerships, digital integrations and investments in emerging technology startups, B2B networks and e-commerce marketplaces.
Kenkare holds a master’s degree in finance and mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as an engineering degree in information technology from the University of Mumbai.
