ITV

Tag: Orios Venture Partners

  • Media veteran Sudhir Syal swaps storytelling for cheque-writing at Orios Venture Partners

    Media veteran Sudhir Syal swaps storytelling for cheque-writing at Orios Venture Partners

    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.

  • MissMalini Entertainment raises Pre-Series A funding

    MissMalini Entertainment raises Pre-Series A funding

    MUMBAI: MissMalini Entertainment, India’s leading lifestyle and entertainment content platform, today announced the completion of INR 104 million pre-series A funding round from Orios Venture Partners and NEA.

    MissMalini Entertainment is the first mover in Indian digital media with the launch of MissMalini.com in 2008. The site was initially launched as a hobby by Malini Agarwal and quickly established itself as a popular lifestyle and entertainment community in the country.  Malini’s unique voice, in conjunction with the rapid adoption of social media by millennials, captured a loyal audience that quickly grew into millions of fans. Since then, the company has built a multi-platform media network reaching over 40 million people a month across its multiple properties. MissMalini’s original lifestyle, entertainment, and social impact content is now a leading voice representing the young, connected and global Indian. 

    As India’s leading multi-platform new media house, the company’s mission is to entertain, inspire and empower its community of over 10 million direct followers and fans. Today, the team of 65 has established a celebrated brand that offers content and marketing services across their website, social media, television, and audio properties, along with its growing library of digital video hits. Meanwhile, Malini has been widely recognized as India’s first major digital influencer, including being named the #1 Most Influential Woman in Indian Media, Marketing and Advertising in 2017 by IMPACT magazine, as well as being featured on Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 and GQ’s 50 Most Influential Young Indians lists. She is a leading advocate for women’s empowerment and is a regular speaker at industry and youth forums. 

    The pre-series A investment has been raised to expand MissMalini’s leadership position with a focus on community building, and to further expand its content, technology, analytics, and sales operations. The company will build out a full-service integrated video production unit, launch vernacular content and continue innovating with new engagement platforms.

    Commenting on the investment, Mr. Rehan Yar Khan, Managing Partner at Orios Venture Partners said, “Digital Entertainment is a booming industry, riding on the back of a large emerging market. This is also an industry which is constantly innovating basis the audience preference and new technology. MissMalini has been at the center-stage of this transformation from the very beginning enabling Malini and her team to understand the pulse of her readers – creating and curating content in the most consumable manner. This makes her and her venture a worthy ‘misfit’ – who dared to think of unconventional ideas and help build her venture from scratch. Having closely worked with the team over some time now, we are extremely pleased with their focus on creating content and using technology to connect the next 300 Million new internet users, and we are delighted to partner with them in their next phase of growth.”

    Malini Agarwal, Founder and Creative Director at MissMalini Entertainment on receiving the pre-Series A round said, “The steady growth at MissMalini reaffirms our conviction that there are still large, untapped audiences that are looking for new ways to connect, engage and express themselves. This round of funding is an important step in expanding our focus from major Metros and deeper into Tier I and II markets, helping us build lasting and meaningful communities of engaged young Indians. This Pre-Series A funding comes at just the right time, as we continue experimenting with exciting new content formats to attract new audiences. We are proud to receive this vote of confidence from our preeminent investors and look forward to a great partnership for the journey ahead. 

    Talking about the growth of the company, Nowshad Rizwanullah, CEO at MissMalini Entertainment said, “Over the years, we have independently built one of India’s most respected digital media brands and a market-leading provider of production and marketing services through our blog, social media, television, digital radio, and digital video teams. We are thrilled to partner with NEA – one of the world’s largest and most active venture capital funds – and Orios Venture Partners – India’s most exciting domestic VC – to power the next phase of our growth. Their unique network and insights are a perfect complement to the opportunities in front of us and the scale of our ambitions.”