Byju’s, Snapdeal co-founders among National Startup Advisory Council nominees

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has nominated Byju Raveendran, the co-founder of Byju’s, ZestMoney co-founder Lizzie Chapman, and Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl among the non-official members of the National Startup Advisory Council.

Established in January last year, the council will advise the government on the measures needed for building a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and helping startups drive strong economic growth and employment opportunities. 

According to a statement from DPIIT, 28 non-official members have been appointed to the council, which mainly includes startup ecosystem stakeholders such as successful founders, investors, people representing interests of investors, accelerators, incubators, representatives of associations of stakeholders of startups, and representatives of industry associations.

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The members will promote a culture of innovation amongst citizens and students by supporting creative ideas through incubation and R&D. They will make capital accessible to startups and make it easier for companies to start, operate, grow and exit businesses by reducing regulatory compliances and costs.

The term of the non-official members of the council is two years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, the statement added.

In addition to Raveendran, Bahl, and Chapman, other founders nominated to the council are Urban Company’s Abhiraj Singh, YourStory’s Shradha Sharma, Rivigo’s Deepak Garg, Ola Cab’s Bhavish Aggarwal, CropIn’s Krishna Kumar, InfoEdge India’s Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Zoho Corp’s Sridhar Vembu, and Ananth Technologies’ Subba Rao Pavuluri.

Meanwhile, nominated investors include Axilor Ventures’ Kris Gopalakrishnan, Aarin Capital Partners’ Mohandas Pai, TVS Capital Funds’ Gopal Srinivasan, Endiya’s Ramesh Byrapaneni, Accel’s Prashant Prakash, Kalaari Capital’s Vani Kola, SoftBank India’s Manoj Kohli, Sequoia Capital India’s Rajan Anandan.