DUBAI: Sudhir Syal, the creator of arguably India’s first startup television programme, has crossed to the other side of the table. The media entrepreneur has joined Orios Venture Partners as president, where he will spearhead the fund’s expansion across the UAE-India corridor whilst hunting for consumer and media investment opportunities.
Syal’s appointment marks a neat full circle. Over a decade ago, he chronicled India’s fledgling venture capital story as host of Starting Up, profiling more than 500 startups across 150 episodes—many of which later achieved unicorn status. Now he joins the very ecosystem he helped popularise, partnering with Orios’s team including Rehan Yar Khan, Madhav Tandan and Sukhmani Bedi.
The move caps a peripatetic career that has seen Syal launch and scale businesses across three continents. Most recently, he founded Startify, a Dubai-based growth consultancy that helped scale five brands across beauty, fashion and fintech, building revenues to over $200,000 with a lean five-person team.
Before that, he served as chief business officer for Lenskart’s Middle East operations, scaling the eyewear giant from zero to over $500,000 in monthly recurring revenue within 18 months. He opened 13 retail stores across major UAE malls and built a 100-member team, earning the company “New Market Entrant of the Year” honours in 2022.
His entertainment industry credentials run deep. As chief executive of BookMyShow’s UAE operations, he established the platform as the region’s leading Indian-origin live entertainment promoter, brokering deals with Coca-Cola Arena and promoting acts including Westlife and Alan Walker. The business achieved over $7 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) within 18 months.
Earlier still, Syal led BookMyShow’s first international expansion into Indonesia, building a 60-person team and establishing the platform as the country’s second-largest ticketing service with over $10 million in GMV.
The trajectory reflects India’s startup ecosystem maturation—from a cottage industry requiring television evangelism to a sophisticated market generating billion-dollar exits. Syal’s transition from storyteller to capital allocator suggests the Indian venture landscape has finally come of age.
At Orios, he will focus on three mandates: building strategic capital partnerships with family offices and institutions, identifying high-growth consumer and media opportunities, and amplifying the fund’s thought leadership across both markets.
“After years as an ecosystem builder, operator, and entrepreneur, it’s energising to be on the other side of the table,” Syal posted on LinkedIn, announcing his appointment.
The hire signals Orios’s ambitions to capture cross-border investment flows between India’s mature startup ecosystem and the Gulf’s expanding venture appetite. With Dubai positioning itself as a bridge between East and West, funds are increasingly seeking operators who understand both markets intimately.
For Syal, who holds an MBA from Insead and has worked across 10 countries, the role represents a homecoming of sorts—returning to the venture capital story he first helped narrate, but now with the power to write its next chapter.
