Had it not been for scarcity of funds, Google may have been an Indian-owned firm at this time. Yes, you learn it proper. The story dates again to 1996. According to experiences, Meet Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman have been pursuing their PhDs in Computer Science at Stanford University in 1996. While finding out, they launched their first firm known as JUNGLEE. JUNGLEE was an internet site that enabled customers to seek for merchandise and evaluate their costs. During the identical interval, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been engaged on BackRub, the precursor to Google.Â
Sergey and Anand have been pals and had the identical PhD advisor. In 1998, Sergey and Larry made a suggestion to promote Google for under $1 million to Venky and Anand. Unfortunately, the Indian duo didn’t have the monetary means to purchase Google at the moment. Later, Junglee was acquired by Amazon for $250 million in 1998. Â
The following yr, Google gained important recognition. Venky and Anand approached Jeff Bezos and satisfied him to amass Google for $300 million. They travelled to Silicon Valley to fulfill with Larry and Sergey however the Google founders disagreed. Larry and Sergey insisted on a billion-dollar price ticket ($1 billion) for Google and the deal didn’t take off. Today, after 25 years, Google’s value has surpassed $1.5 trillion.
cre Trending Stories
Despite the Junglee acquisition, Venky and Anand did not cease there. In 2002, they established a enterprise fund and efficiently facilitated the acquisition of a number of portfolio corporations. They additionally created and offered Kosmix for $300 million to Walmart. In 2015, they launched one other fund and have since offered funding for a number of Indian startups.
Meet these two of us from Chennai who virtually acquired Google, not as soon as however twice.
Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman graduated from IIT-M and went to Stanford University 30 years in the past. Their friendship started when Venky drove Anand to purchase groceries in his automobile. They co-founded… pic.twitter.com/DrslOolTTO
— Amit Jaiswal (@TheAmitJaiswal) July 15, 2023
Who Is Venky Harinarayan?
Dr. Venky Harinarayan obtained his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1988 and went on to do his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Stanford, USA. Venky is an investor, entrepreneur and chief in search and e-commerce. He is the co-founder of Cambrian Ventures and Kosmix. He additionally co-founded Junglee Corp., which pioneered Internet comparability buying. Junglee was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. in 1998. Venky is an energetic angel investor in India and Silicon Valley. He is considered one of lower than 5 angel buyers in Facebook. He can be a Board member of TutorVista, based mostly out of Bangalore, which has been acquired by Person LLC in 2001.
Who Is Anand Rajaraman?
Dr. Anand Rajaraman obtained his B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1993 and went on to do his M.S and Ph.D. in Computer Science at Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA. Anand is a serial entrepreneur, enterprise capitalist and educational. He is the co-founder of Cambrian Ventures, a enterprise capital agency. His investments embrace Facebook, Aster Data Systems, Neoteris, India Infoline, YouSendIT, and a number of others. Anand was the co-founder and CTO of Junglee Corp., and performed a key position in creating Junglee’s award-winning Virtual Database expertise. Later, when Junglee was acquired by Amazon.com, Anand helped within the transformation of Amazon.com from a retailer right into a retail platform.
