A member of the top 100 from the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist
Three years ago, Srinivas Gattamneni, formerly managing director of consultancy Venture Pursuit and a former corporate venturer at UK-based chipmaker ARM, joined Asian telecoms company Axiata in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In this role, Gattamneni looks after corporate venturing activities for Axiata, whose operations including Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Singapore and India. It has quietly been probably the most active corporate venturer across Southeast Asia, with 12 direct investments in three years.
These deals cover commerce, payments, entertainment and advertising, and include Adknowledge Asia, the largest adtech firm spanning Southeast Asia; Elevenia, the largest e-commerce player in Indonesia; 11street.my, the second-largest e-commerce player in Malaysia; FreedomPop, a disruptive telco model launched in the US, the UK and Spain; Yonder Music; EzCash, an award-winning and largest mobile money platform in Sri Lanka; XL Tunai; Digital Health Lanka; Wow.lk, the largest e-commerce player in Sri Lanka; Guru.lk; WSO2.Telco; andTwig.
It has set up the Rg70m ($17.5m) Axiata Digital Innovation Fund – in collaboration with state-backed Malaysia Venture Capital Management and managed by Intres Capital Partners – to find deals for Axiata.
At the end of last year, the fund backed six Malaysia-based startups – virtual outsourcing tool Supahands; curated news app provider Spot News; cleaning professionals marketplace MaidEasy; courier services marketplace Easyparcel; Tripfez, a travel agency aimed at muslims; kFit, a fitness sharing platform; and EasyUni, a tool for students and parents to connect with higher education institutions.
Gattamneni said the fund had now completed seven deals and was the largest corporate venturing fund in Malaysia, adding: “We will be scaling this model into most of our footprint countries on the back of its success.”
Before joining Axiata, Gattamneni was a founding director of PayZazz in 2011 after leaving ARM. He worked at the chip maker for three years, having previously been head of China development for Motorola, and in software for TTPCom.
