Rajan Anandan

Rajan Anandan in an Indian businessman and angel investor. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Blue Ocean Ventures, the first Sri Lankan seed fund company. Anandan’s investment interests are mainly focused on early stage technology companies and include mobile technology, internet, and software startups, mainly around India, Sri Lanka and in the United States. With a deep understanding and passion for technology, Anandan has cultivated a firm reputation as a veteran in his field. 

Known as a hands-on leader, Rajan Anandan works closely with startup teams with the goal of maximizing growth potential from inception. He has worked with over 45 startup investments in India and more than 10 investments in Sri Lanka. In addition to investments made, Anandan also holds several management consulting roles. He started his career in the United States at McKinsey & Company where he worked as a partner for over 10 years. Anandan then worked for several years at Dell where he held various managerial roles across the globe. After leaving Dell, where his final role was Country General Manager, the businessman joined Microsoft where he was appointed as Managing Director of the company’s Indian arm. Anandan then took on the role of managing director of Google India, a position he still holds. Furthermore, Anandan’s board and advisor roles include:

• Business advisor at Ayata
• Strategic advisor and Trekurious
• Board member at ASCI
• Advisor at CapitalG
• Board advisor at Anthem Academy 
• Board member at WebEngage

Location

An Indian national, Rajan Anandan has worked for some of the industry giants in his native country. Prior to this Anandan worked for several years in the United States where he also achieved his education. His corporate headquarters is located in California, United States. Anandan is also a Member of the Board of Governors for the Advertising Standards Council of India. 

Remarkable Investments 

Rajan Anandan, BEENEXT and other investors backed Trell, a video-first experience discovery platform with US$1.25 million in 2018. Trell plans to strengthen their team in the areas of technology, product and data science with the generous backing received. Designed for millennials, the platform achieved over a million uploads within the short space of only 8 months. Other major investments by Anandan include:

• authorSTREAM.com, lead investor with US$5 million raised during series A funding in 2010
• PregBuddy, lead investor during the seed round in 2018
• TravelKhana.com, investor with US$2 million during the seed round in 2013

Rajan Anandan in the News

Inc 42 reported in July 2018 that Mobile Health, a healthtech startup from Singapore will acquire Uninstall.io, a technology product backed by Rajan Anandan during its seed funding phase. It was also announced that Anandan is one of the top five angel investors in India. It was published in NDTV Profit that Anandan would take over from Pramod Bhasin as president of TiE Delhi-NCR, a non-profit organization with the goal of fostering entrepreneurship. Livemint reported that Anandan would be involved with a three-month accelerator programme in which selected startups in India would be mentored through Google’s Launchpad Accelerator.