Global IndianstoryBringing Silicon Valley to India: How Vani Kola sparked a startup revolution

Bringing Silicon Valley to India: How Vani Kola sparked a startup revolution

Compiled by: Charu Thakur

(November 6, 2024) In 2006, Vani Kola returned to India after spending more than two decades in the United States, fueled by a desire to be part of a rapidly transforming landscape. This wasn’t just any homecoming; it was the beginning of a bold venture — Kalaari Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that would become one of India’s leading investors in technology startups giving 3x to 5x returns to its investors. Kola, a pioneer in venture capital in India, has invested in companies like Cure. Fit, Myntra, Snapdeal, Dream11, Urban Ladder, and YourStory which have thrived under her guidance. At 60, she has over 22 years of entrepreneurial experience in Silicon Valley and has invested in over 90 companies.

Vani Kola | Global Indian

Recognized as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business, Kola is dedicated to collaborating with entrepreneurs to create high-value businesses. What truly distinguishes her is her commitment to being accessible to her founders, along with her focus on nurturing and mentoring ambitious first-time entrepreneurs. “I approach everything with the question, ‘Will I find meaning in the context and horizon of time that truly matters to me?’ Ultimately, everything you do is for yourself,” said Vani, whose venture capital firm has grown to have over $650 million in assets under management.

Understanding that AI is the future, Kalaari Capital has been investing heavily in AI startups. Recently, they invested $2 million in Hyperbots, a startup that uses AI for finance and accounting, which was followed by another $2.25 million investment in Figr which uses AI to design products insanely fast with ease. Explaining why they invested in Figr, Kalaari Capital said, “Generative AI is now revolutionising design space, with AI agents autonomously executing design tasks and streamlining workflows from ideation to implementation.”

Pushing the Envelope

Vani’s story begins in Hyderabad, where she was born in 1964. Growing up, she faced the challenge of being one of only six women in a class of 400 electrical engineering students at Osmania University. The odds were against her, but Kola has always believed in doing things differently. “I was encouraged to dream, to pursue a career in a male-dominated world.” She is grateful that she had a nurturing home and an encouraging school environment that nudged her constantly to push the envelope.

The Silicon Valley Chapter: Building Success Abroad

After earning her bachelor’s degree, she moved to the US in 1985 to pursue her Master’s degree from Arizona State University. This was a time when very few women chose this path, especially in fields dominated by men. After completing her studies, she settled in California, where she founded her first startup, RightWorks, in 1996. The company focused on global procurement management and quickly gained traction. Under her leadership, RightWorks was sold for an impressive $567 million, establishing Kola as a force to be reckoned with in the tech world.

Vani Kola

Her success didn’t come without challenges; Kola often faced gender bias, with male colleagues questioning her commitment as a mother while pursuing her career. Reflecting on this, she recounted an experience where a male acquaintance asked if she felt guilty for leaving her infant daughter at home while traveling for business. “It just doesn’t occur to men! You just have to develop tools to cope,” Kola explained. It was her tenacity that helped her navigate these challenges, establishing herself as a strong entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. For many, including Kola, Silicon Valley represented not only a place of opportunity but also a launching pad for ideas that would later impact India and the world.

Returning to her Roots

After selling her second startup, Certus, in 2005, she took a moment to reflect on her future. It was during a solo trip to Hawaii that Kola experienced an awakening, realising it was time to return to India after briefly travelling to her homeland. It felt like a new country to her and she was drawn to it.

“This is a very different India and if I don’t participate in it, India will be fine, but I will miss out. My entrepreneurial fervour or my entrepreneurial bone drove me here.” — Vani Kola

Founding Kalaari Capital: A Return with Purpose

Within a few months, she packed her bags and bought a one-way ticket to India in 2006, where she set up Indo-US Venture Partners which was later rebranded as Kalaari Capital, taking inspiration from Kalaripayattu, a martial arts form which to her represented entrepreneurial traits she deeply values – commitment, strength and perseverance. Having raised funds in North America, she came with credibility and reputation but she had to unlearn many things. Having worked for 22 years in Silicon Valley, she was keen to make India global. However, back then, the market was yet to evolve. “My US network and experience was useless because Indian companies weren’t rapidly going global at that point,” she said, adding that’s when she started venturing into e-commerce and gaming. “You can call it a leap of faith or a deep conviction but we started taking early bets on that.” Despite entering into a new space in India, Vani was happy to take the chance as she saw it as an adventure and a learning experience that could test her in a fulfilling way.

Starting with an initial fund of $150 million, Kalaari Capital has expanded its portfolio over the years, investing in diverse areas such as e-commerce, gaming, digital media, and healthcare. Kalaari Capital was an early investor in Snapdeal, Myntra, Dream11 via Simplilearn, and many companies that made great returns. “Coming from a very conservative middle-class family, the sense of money and its value is very intimate to me. Money is a means to an end; it is not the end itself. But money brings responsibilities and obligations. We have always wanted to create par returns globally and have been able to consistently return 3x to 5x of our funds. This puts us in the top quartile in the world,” the Global Indian revealed.

Her journey also intersects with the broader narrative of the Indian diaspora, particularly in Silicon Valley, where many Indians have made significant contributions to technology and entrepreneurship. This community has played a crucial role in the growth of the tech industry, bringing diverse perspectives and innovations. Vani, as part of this community, has demonstrated how cross-cultural experiences can lead to meaningful contributions back home.

Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators

Throughout her career, Kola has remained committed to empowering others. As a mentor to many first-time entrepreneurs, she actively seeks to bridge the gap in the venture capital space for women. When discussing the scarcity of women venture capitalists, she emphasised the need for more women in STEM leadership positions to create a more inclusive ecosystem. “You need women in those positions to be tech venture capitalists,” she asserted.

Reflecting on her journey, Vani Kola encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to embrace challenges without fear of risks. “The principle of pushing yourself for challenges without worrying about calculating the risk, but instead looking at the upside, looking at the positives was imbibed in me.” Her story is a powerful reminder that success is not just about the destination but also about the journey and the lessons learned along the way.

As Vani Kola continues to lead Kalaari Capital and support the next generation of entrepreneurs, her legacy will undoubtedly inspire many to break through barriers and redefine what is possible.

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Published on 06, Nov 2024

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Rahul Jain: India-born entrepreneur changing digital payment scene in South Africa

(October 14, 2022) If Mastercard’s New Payment Index 2022 is to be believed, 95 percent of consumers in South Africa used at least one emerging digital payment method in the last year and 67 percent of consumers have purchased from an online marketplace. The purpose with which India-born Rahul Jain set up Peach Payments in South Africa in 2013 has now come to fruition, as a decade later, he is happy to be making digital payments easier in the country. "With Peach, we believe that we are building a potential 100-year business. Digital commerce is the future and we’re building the infrastructure on which this future is being built. As opportunities are seized by entrepreneurs across Africa to build digital businesses, we want to be the preferred payment platform to enable their success," Rahul tells Global Indian. [caption id="attachment_30585" align="aligncenter" width="806"] Rahul Jain is the founder of Peach Payments in South Africa.[/caption] When Rahul moved to Cape Town from Boston, his focus was South Africa, but Peach Payments has now expanded to Kenya and Mauritius, as "digital commerce has helped democratise many industries." For someone who is a regular at Youth Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Africa FinTech Festival, ECOM Africa, and

" /> Rahul Jain is the founder of Peach Payments in South Africa.[/caption]

When Rahul moved to Cape Town from Boston, his focus was South Africa, but Peach Payments has now expanded to Kenya and Mauritius, as "digital commerce has helped democratise many industries." For someone who is a regular at Youth Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Africa FinTech Festival, ECOM Africa, and Seamless Africa, Rahul has enabled many businesses to scale, "often from a rough idea into incredible success stories." Peach Payments was just an idea in 2011 which took a few years to translate into reality. However, it is currently thriving, and how! "We’ve seen apps being built to make it easier for people to buy insurance. New ways of providing credit such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) have helped democratise access to credit. Most of these new insurtechs and BNPL players have used Peach to build their businesses. We see our role as enablers and catalysts in helping people solve problems," adds the entrepreneur.

An internship that changed it all

Born and raised in a business family in Delhi, entrepreneurship runs in his blood. While his paternal family loved carving out watches in India under the Jayco brand, his maternal grandfather pioneered ceramics in India. As a kid, he heard the dinner table conversations and somehow it kind of got "ingrained" in him at a young age. "I always knew I wanted to do something of my own," he says. This passion led him to pursue an MBA degree from IESE Business School in Barcelona, after completing his degree in engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University. But little did he know that a summer internship at a boutique venture capital fund in Pretoria, South Africa would introduce him to his German friend, Andreas Demleitner, with whom he would someday launch his own startup.

[caption id="attachment_30586" align="aligncenter" width="711"] Entrepreneur | Rahul Jain | Global Indian Andreas Demleitner and Rahul Jain are the co-founders of Peach Payments[/caption]

The two stayed in touch, but life had other plans at that time. Always the first to grab an opportunity, Jain moved to Boston as part of an exchange program at Sloan School of Management at MIT and stayed at the state capital for two years where he worked with a strategy consulting job advising large retailers and airlines about e-commerce and marketing. It was in November 2011 that Rahul got a call from Andreas asking him to join hands in "starting a digital payments business in Africa."

Taking the risk

It was the perfect chance to dip his toes in entrepreneurship, and that's when he decided to move to South Africa to start Peach Payments. "We were also accepted into a startup incubator called Umbono that Google was running in Cape Town. We were one of the nine startups in that program. It was a great opportunity and one that was hard to pass up," explains the entrepreneur. They joined forces with the ambitious goal of revolutionising the online payment space in South Africa. For someone who had lived in Barcelona and Boston, Jain was willing to take the challenge of moving to Cape Town.

Though he feels that he is on the other end of the world and "a trip to India takes 16-17 hours at a minimum," he is sailing through. "All my family and friends are in India. My wife is from Nepal and her family is also based in the subcontinent. So for us, the distance is something we feel all the time," reveals the entrepreneur. Moving to a new city and starting a new life with new friends was formidable on a personal front.

Even professionally, it was a challenging task. While Jain's dream of becoming an entrepreneur was translating into a reality, raising money was an initial hurdle. After one of the seed-funding rounds collapsed at the last moment, they had their backs against the wall. So much so that Jain and his business partner were paying salaries through their savings. "We have faced several challenges. Some of them relate to being a foreigner in a new country and trying to start a new business. I had no networks here and no one knew us," reveals Jain. However, the entrepreneur remained focused on growing sales and revenues, and it was the small victories that led them to solve the cash crunch.

[caption id="attachment_30588" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Entrepreneur | Rahul Jain | Global Indian Rahul Jain moved to South Africa to start Peach Payments[/caption]

The ’gamechanging’ pandemic

In the last decade, Peach Payments has rapidly expanded its suite of tools to help online businesses scale. The risk of moving continents for the startup paid off as it provides online payment solutions to any enterprise selling a product through websites, apps, email, and SMS. Currently active in South Africa, Kenya, and Mauritius, Peach Payments "will be expanding to two more countries by the end of the year." The pandemic led to a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour towards digital commerce, which Jain calls a "gamechanger". People were suddenly forced to buy online during the lockdown, and it inspired them to see the benefits of digital commerce and the convenience it brought with itself.

"The business mindset also changed at an incredible pace. Businesses that previously were only considering e-commerce are suddenly going online in a matter of days. At Peach Payments, we saw record numbers of new accounts in 2020. Across market segments – from retail, digital learning, fitness, and even traditional financial services – we’ve onboarded new clients in almost every vertical in the past two years," explains Rahul, who reveals that the transaction volumes grew 4.5 times since the start of the pandemic.

When Jain started Peach Payments, it took him a year to convince the first bank in South Africa to work with them. But the funding landscape is changing now. "It was incredibly hard to raise any venture capital during the first few years. Africa was not where venture capitalists were investing. This has only really changed in the past two years now. Today, you are seeing unicorns emerge in Africa and startups regularly raising funding rounds of more than $100 million. Back in 2014-15, it was incredibly hard to raise even $100k in funding. So, we were forced to bootstrap the business to a large extent."

Indian diaspora’s help

It was the Indian diaspora largely that helped him travel and integrate with ease across various countries in Africa. He says that Indians are well-respected across the subcontinent, and the diaspora in Kenya especially plays a major role in the local economy and welfare. Jain, who sees a big opportunity in Indian companies, is of the firm belief that such startups should look to expand in Africa. And he has a plan too. "One of my goals is to make it easier for Indian companies to sell in Africa. At Peach, we can process and collect payments for them and repatriate their funds to India making it much easier for them to grow in Africa. I genuinely believe in this and trying to play a role in helping build on this from a digital commerce perspective. I have also recently helped kick off the JITO initiative in South Africa," adds the entrepreneur.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaoCX8LS_Qc[/embed]

Rahul, who enjoys the outdoors in Cape Town, spends time in the Winelands, hikes, and plays a sport. "Besides spending time with my 5-year-old daughter, I am passionate about padel, an up-and-coming racquet sport that originated in Mexico and is very popular in Spain and now starting to grow in South Africa as well," he adds.

Peach Payments has changed the way digital payments are seen in Africa, and it has brought its share of learnings. "Starting and growing Peach Payments has taught me that nothing comes easily. Being a successful start-up is all about grinding away at big obstacles and acknowledging that progress takes time," the entrepreneur signs off.

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Aspiring actor to entrepreneur, Samarth Bajaj believes in diversification

(April 22, 2023) Cinema was Samarth Bajaj’s first love and becoming an actor was his dream. And he had all it takes to become one. His parents supported his career choices too, but had one condition – he was to obtain a degree from a top university in the US before pursuing his acting career. That’s how this entrepreneur ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree in business administration, majoring in entrepreneurship and marketing from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (USC) and minoring in acting. Destiny had a different plan for him. Gradually, the acting bug faded away and the Hyderabad-born, who went on to launch one company after another is now an entrepreneur of repute. “I realised that my passion lay in creating businesses that add genuine value to our society, through creativity and new culture,” says Samarth, in an exclusive chat with Global Indian. At 25, Samarth founded his own real estate company, Trojan Realty, which focussed on premium boutique projects. At 30, he founded India’s first official Bollywood-based indoor experience museum, House of Stars with license partners like Dharma Productions, Fox Films, Mukta Arts, and Zee Music to name a few.

25, Samarth founded his own real estate company, Trojan Realty, which focussed on premium boutique projects. At 30, he founded India’s first official Bollywood-based indoor experience museum, House of Stars with license partners like Dharma Productions, Fox Films, Mukta Arts, and Zee Music to name a few. “I was ecstatic about the possibility of having our own Tussaud’s type indoor entertainment centre. We have our own in-house 3D scanning and printing capabilities. So all the statues, sets, and costumes are exact replicas of the iconic scenes,” explains the entrepreneur, who currently owns five companies that dabble in jewellery, real estate, Indoor entertainment, and e-learning.

Shifting passions

After growing and automating his other businesses, Samarth has now founded his latest venture — The Designer’s Class — a premium digital education platform focusing on various verticals in the design industry and Boheim, which is all about premium real estate. He says The Designer’s Class is a journey that spans over a decade and a half but has seen fruition only in the last couple of years. “I found the design education in India a little archaic, outdated, and expensive which led to the birth of this company,” he points out.

Design was always considered a field that required practical practice in real time, anything virtual hadn’t been attempted before. “We give direct access to our students to learn from stalwarts of the industry and make the content, relevant, engaging, affordable, and accessible,” explains the Co-founder and CEO of the company. A start in general keeps you on your toes, especially in the initial years, which is both exciting and exhausting, feels the entrepreneur. “Today, we are at a point where all systems are in place, and our different revenue streams have begun contributing in good measure, even as we continue to optimise our execution.”

Entrepreneur | Samarth Bajaj | Global Indian

Samarth went to three schools — Gitanjali, Chirec, and Hyderabad Public School, which he says contributed immensely to what he has achieved today. His father Suresh Bajaj runs Shiv Shakti Constructions, a real estate company while his mother Bunty Bajaj owns a Jewellery company – Krsala. “My father is my rock. He is the most patient, mentally strong, and resilient person I’ve ever known. My mother is an enigma, an exceptional woman, who challenged the patriarchal society most nonchalantly,” says the entrepreneur about his parents. His sister Miheeka is married to Tollywood actor Rana Daggubati. Samarth’s wife Sasha is from Mumbai.

At school, Samarth was every bit of a sportsman, indulging in almost every sport. He was part of the choir team too, who sang in the choir in concert with legends like Lata Mangeshkar and AR Rehman. One of his favourite school memories was when he played Prof. Higgins in the play Pygmalion by Tennessee Williams. “That moment I realised that I had the aptitude to become an actor,” recalls Samarth.

Bitten by the acting bug

Come 2005, Samarth left for the US after getting admission to USC. He had even applied for an Italian student visa but dropped the idea as the logistics seemed a bit hectic. “I hated my first few months in America. LA also wasn’t a commute-friendly city and to make matters worse, USC was in the heart of the Ghetto. You needed a car to move around, which I didn’t have in the beginning. It was a whole new world, which felt lonely and daunting,” says Samarth of his initial days in the US.

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It was only after he made a few close friends and got accustomed to life there that he started enjoying college, which eventually turned out to be the best four years of his life. Being at USC also was an experience like no other for this Hyderabadi. “It taught me to be responsible, make new friends, and interact with people from varied cultures. It made me a bit of a hustler,” smiles Samarth.

The young entrepreneur, along with other students, was once taken to Mexico to research the facilities and businesses on which they were doing a case study. “Our entrepreneurship class made us make comprehensive business plans, in which I came up with an entire serviced apartment business model before the concept had even existed in India,” says Samarth, who was the committee member of Southern California Indo Americans for two years and held the position of internal chair. He was also a part of the USC’s official Bollywood dance troop called Anjaane.

Entrepreneur | Samarth Bajaj | Global Indian

Names like Will Ferrell, George Lucas, and so many more prominent Hollywood personalities were a part of the USC alumni which got Samarth excited, as he was keen on becoming an actor. While the entrepreneur was at the university, American filmmaker George Lucas donated $300 million for setting up a new film school at USC. As soon as he graduated from USC in May 2009, Samarth flew straight to Mumbai, as he got a position as an Assistant Director in a Hindi film Aisha which had already gone into pre-production by the time he landed.

“I was supposed to stay back in LA for a little longer (after graduation) and attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, to train further in acting, but I did not want to miss this (Aisha) opportunity and returned,” he says.

Building an empire

However, it was just a short stint for Samarth as the film had taken a short break from pre-production as they were reworking a few things. “That’s when I started working in the family business, while also auditioning and attempting to make a career in acting simultaneously” informs Samarth, who also did a short stint with Indian theatre director Barry John in Mumbai.

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Auditioning was a humbling process for him. “You face rejection and failure constantly and you have no option but to just deal with it. It makes you pretty thick-skinned,” he smiles. The entrepreneur then realised that business interested him. “I liked coming up with new ideas and strategies and seeing them come to life,” he says.

Back then, Samarth’s business training was happening mostly in his mother’s Jewellery company, Krsala. Simultaneously, he was also learning the ropes of real estate from his father. But building a brand was something he learned with his mother.

Although the acting bug had fully loosened its grip on Samarth, he still decided to give it a year to it. He assisted one more film under Indian film director Farah Khan after which he went to New York for a short course in acting at Lee Strasberg, where he did shoot a few short films that gained a fair amount of critical acclaim in the New York college circles. “Shortly after returning to India though, I realised that I wasn’t cut out to pursue acting as a career choice anymore and immersed myself fully in business,” says the entrepreneur, who then started taking over the reins of the family businesses while endeavouring into my his ventures like Trojan Realty, House of Stars among others.

Entrepreneur | Samarth Bajaj | Global Indian

Real estate was one industry that always caught his fancy. “If I wasn’t so taken in by acting, I strongly believe that I would’ve pursued a degree in architecture. It’s creatively satisfying,” says Samarth, for whom Trojan Realty was his version of a boutique experiential living brand. Between House of Stars and Trojan Realty, Samarth had started a Jewellery e-commerce business called Jewellery Bazaar. But this venture failed to perform. “It made me a mature entrepreneur. I understood the mistakes I made,” informs Samarth.

The show must go on

Ask him about his future plans, and the entrepreneur quips, “Currently all my focus is on The Designers Class and Boheim, which is a culmination of everything that I wanted to do in real estate,” informs Samarth. Under Boheim, Samarth is currently executing three projects, one in Hyderabad and two in Goa. “We are actively looking to expand our presence in these two cities predominantly.”

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Samarth continues to be an avid cinema lover. “I follow the medium not just from a content consumption perspective, but also enthusiastically track the business that different films do across industries,” says Samarth, who likes to paint and write poetry whenever he gets time. He is also attempting to write a script of his own.

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Reading Time: 6 mins

Russell Peters: The Indo-Canadian comedian keeping the world in stitches

(October 13, 2023) 'Someone's going to get hurt really bad', that's the disclaimer that funnyman Russell Peters never fails to give before any of his performances. Witty, sarcastic and funny - the Indo-Canadian is a standup comedian whose jokes never run dry. From being one of the first artistes of colour to have achieved fame in comedy to becoming the first-ever comedian to get a Netflix special to making it as one of the highest-paid comedians, Russell has become a name to reckon with in the standup comic circle. But it has been a long journey for this brown boy who was bullied in school and had to fight his way to the top. From a bullied brown boy to a hip DJ Born in Toronto to immigrant Indian parents who immigrated to Canada in 1965 from Bombay, Russell's family then moved to Brampton when he was four. Growing up as a South Asian in the ’70s in Canada wasn't easy for a young Russell as he faced bullying at the hands of other kids for his ethnicity and cultural background. It affected him and what added insult to injury was his undiagnosed ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) that led him to

ficit/hyperactivity disorder) that led him to a special school. Eventually, Russell took up boxing to help resist bullying as it gave him the confidence and helped him overcome his insecurities.

[caption id="attachment_12082" align="aligncenter" width="1080"] Russell Peters is an Indo-Canadian comedian.[/caption]

While Russell was up for becoming tough to protect himself, he was also a cool guy who loved mixing tapes. At 15, he started DJing. In the summer of 1985, he learnt to cut, scratch and mix, and got his first turntable. This love for hip hop helped him get many gigs as a teenager. By the 1990s, he had become a well-known DJ in Toronto. But Russell was a multi-hyphenate who was exploring more about himself with each passing year. While DJing helped him evolve as an artiste, he equally loved performing on stage.

The deep dive into comedy

For someone who loved listening to comedy records as a kid, he developed a penchant for standup. However, with no one of his colour ever seen in the mainstream comedy market in Canada, he had to face strong dissent from his father. "Every reason my dad said I couldn't do this; was every reason I could do it. For example, my dad would say, 'There are no Indians in this business.' I would say, 'That's why I'll make it.' He would say, 'They won't understand you.' I would say, 'That's why I'll make it' I was the first guy who couldn't be compared to anybody else," he said in an interview.

While Peters was happy balancing his DJing with standup gigs, he worked as a shoe store attendant to make ends meet. "I was already a comic, but I obviously wasn't making any money, so I worked at ALDO during the day. Then I would go do comedy at night and I would DJ on weekends," he said.

Russell Peters | Global Indian

But things took a stunning turn for the 53-year-old when he met his idol American comedian George Carlin in 1992. Carlin advised Russell to get on the stage whenever and wherever possible, and the comedian took it to heart. "It's the reason I am where I am right now," he wrote on his website. After doing standups at bars, Russell made his TV debut with Comedy at Club 45 and later tickled the funny bone of the audience with Comedy Now and Just for Laughs. For almost a decade, he kept appearing on television but fame still eluded him. Things took a turn when a 2004 special on the Canadian TV show Comedy Now found its way to YouTube. In no time, the small snippets focusing on cultural groups from the show went viral and made Russell an overnight star.

How the funny man became an overnight star

His observational comedy that found its footing in ethnic, racial, class and cultural stereotypes got him acclaim worldwide. For someone who makes money from his wit, Russell has never censored his act to suit the temperament of the audience. "The only thing I don't touch on is religion. People are prepared to die for their religion. Otherwise, I don't believe in censorship and won’t censor myself. If I do, I'm not being true to being a comedian - which is a truth-teller," the Global Indian told FirstPost.

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Three years later, he became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre with more than 30,000 tickets sold nationally over a two-day sales period. Not just this, the comedian broke a UK comedy sales record at London's O2 Arena when he sold 16,000 tickets to his show in 2009. 2010 brought with it another record-breaking gig in Sydney with an audience of 13,880 making it the largest stand-up comedy show ever in Australia.

Cashing in on the success, Russell released his autobiography, Call Me Russell in 2010 which chronicles his humble beginning as a brown, bullied kid to his rise as one of the world's top-earning comics.

In 2013, he secured a third spot on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid comedians, and became the first comedian to get a Netflix standup special, Notorius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Fmvj3dbSU

While shows and television kept Russell occupied for majority of the time, he also tried his hand in Hollywood with films like Source Code, The Jungle Book, and Fifty Shades of Black.

In 2016, Russell turned producer with a Canadian music documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution that won him a Peabody Award and the International Emmy Award for Best Arts Programming.

Russell, who began at a time when people of colour were almost invisible in the comedy circle, has come a long way. And the comedian is happy that the world of comedy has metamorphosed. "It’s no longer dominated by white guys. It’s obviously more diverse — not just racially, but gender-wise and culturally. It’s also global now. It’s more accepted as an art form unto itself in more and more countries," he added.

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Reading Time: 5 min

Paris Laxmi: Bridging cultures through Bharatanatyam – A French enigma’s dance odyssey

(September 19, 2023) It was written in the stars for artist Paris Laxmi when she first stepped foot in India as a five-year-old. A French girl, who had heard stories of Hindu gods from her mother, grew up on a rich diet of Indian art and culture. The interest soon translated into a love for the country on her first visit. Mesmerized by the Indian dance art forms, she started learning Bharatnatyam at the age of nine, and years later moved to India forever. Here she met her now husband, a Kathak artist with whom she started Kalashakti School of Arts in Kochi. The 32-year-old, who calls herself Indian by heart, has found her home in India. Born in Aix-en-Provence in France in 1991 to a family that has been rooted in art, she found herself surrounded by it in the initial years of her life. "Before my birth, India was already a part of my family as my parents were loving this country, its customs, people, philosophy, arts, and heritage. My father first came to India in 1982, then with my mother some years after; they also decided to name me Myriam Sophia Lakshmi, and my brother Theo Elie

r some years after; they also decided to name me Myriam Sophia Lakshmi, and my brother Theo Elie Narayan. I can say that both India and dance were already a part of me when I was born," she wrote on the KalaShakti website.

[caption id="attachment_29498" align="aligncenter" width="478"] Artist | Paris Laxmi | Global Indian Paris Laxmi is an artist and actor[/caption]

She grew up hearing the stories of Hindu gods like Shiva-Parvati and Radha-Krishna along with stories of Jesus from her sculptor mother. This pulled her to the Indian culture at a tender age, and her first visit to the country at the age of five only added to her love for everything Indian. She soon began visiting India every year with her family and stayed for around two months, where they met the locals and experienced the country firsthand. "The connection my family and I have with India are difficult to explain. It’s like this natural feeling that we are home here. We feel moved by the culture. This is our favourite place,” the artist told The Better India.

Growing up, she was intrigued by the dance forms, and as young as five, began taking dance classes in hip hop, ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance. But her trips to India awakened in her a love for Indian dance, and at age nine, she began learning Bharatnatyam from Armelle Choquard, and later Dominique Delorme in France. "Indian classical dance forms are so deep and complex. The dancer needs so many qualities. It’s not only the technical ability but also acting ability, sense of music, and sense of aesthetics. It is a very demanding form," she added. While she continued learning the nuances of Bharatnatyam, she completed her Baccalaureate in French literature and arts. However, many people in France were unable to fathom their love for India. "My relatives could never quite understand it either, and always questioned my father about why we never visited any country except India," she told Little India in an interview. But their heart was already in India, something that not many people understood.

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However, it was the love for dance that brought her to India once again where she trained under Smt Sucheta Chapekar in Pune and later at Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam's Nrithyodaya School of Dance in Chennai for a year. "I used 'Laxmi' as my stage name until my brother's guru Kalaimamani Tiruvarur Bakthavathsalam added 'Paris' to it for recognition," she added. Keen to be accepted by Indians, she only performed Bharatnatyam initially. "For a while, I didn’t showcase the other western dance forms that I had trained in. I thought it was important that people identified me as a classical dancer, and as someone who understood and is a part of Indian culture," the artist said in an interview.

Interestingly, it was the dance that drew her to her now husband, Pallipuram Sunil, a famous Kathak artist from Vaikom in Kerala. She was just seven when she first saw him perform at Fort Kochi during one of her visits to India. "A very young artiste was performing for us, with others. Though I was amazed by all of them, he was the one who touched me the most. For nearly two weeks, I continued to watch him in Kochi. I loved the colourful costumes of Kathakali and he used to show them and explain everything that I wished to know about the costumes. It was Sunil….no one could imagine then that he would be my husband 14 years later! He is 13 years older than me!," she had said. She was 16 when she met him again in Kochi and shared her interest in Indian classical dance art forms. Soon they became friends, and she moved to India in 2012 after marriage.

[caption id="attachment_29496" align="aligncenter" width="431"] Artist | Paris Laxmi | Global Indian Paris Laxmi with husband Pallipuram Sunil[/caption]

Now India is her home. While she was already in love with Indian culture, she has now embraced Hinduism after her marriage to Sunil in 2012. The same year, they started Kalashakti School of Arts where they both teach their respective dance forms and organise Art performances and workshops. Over the last few years, 'Sangamam - Krishna Mayam', a classical dance fusion of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam showcasing stories and manifestations of Lord Krishna with compositions has toured all over India, Europe, and Gulf countries. She is on a mission to make more children understand 'the difference between classical dance and what is shown on TV'. "So many people from foreign countries wish to learn Indian classical dance now. It is something very rich and unique that India has. The government and the people of this country should preserve and promote it," she added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXAglWvdWt0

Being an artist, she wanted to spread her wings and ventured into Malayalam films at the age of 16 when she met a film crew in Kochi and got her first role in Big B. However, it was her role in Bangalore Days that got her attention. Now a known face in the Malayalam film industry, Laxmi is keen to explore challenging roles but more importantly, wants to have a large space to develop her projects. She moved to India for the love of the country and its culture - a place she now calls home. From an outsider to an insider, she has come a long way despite many challenges. "Challenges keep on coming. That’s what keeps me going on. It’s a part of life. My biggest challenge is to be better than I was yesterday, and this never ends!"

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Bobbie Kalra: The Indian entrepreneur leading the way we map our world

(December 21, 2021) When it comes to mapping in the times of technology, this IT head honcho is right at the crux of innovation. With everything being digitally mapped today, the reliance on geospatial mapping is of prime importance and Bobbie Kalra, founder Magnasoft has his fingers on the pulse of an industry that is set to grow Rs 63,100 crore by 2025. The Indian entrepreneur has given the geospatial industry cutting-edge technology and services with Magnasoft, which is among the leaders in this space. The ambitious India-based digital geospatial information specialist has been shaking things up for quite some time now with his intelligent 3D models to enable informed decision-making for all kinds of applications. From first helping Bengaluru increase property taxation by 100 percent to having worked across 72 countries in the areas of architecture, utilities, high-tech space, infrastructure, and telecom projects, Kalra has come full circle since his first venture back in 1995. [embed]https://twitter.com/magnasoft/status/1382659715751026690?s=20[/embed] The engineer from Bangalore Born in Bhopal, Kalra moved to Bengaluru when he was less than a year old as his father worked with BHEL. After schooling at Baldwin’s Boys High School, he did his mechanical engineering from Bangalore University in 1994. “This was the age of

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The engineer from Bangalore

Born in Bhopal, Kalra moved to Bengaluru when he was less than a year old as his father worked with BHEL. After schooling at Baldwin’s Boys High School, he did his mechanical engineering from Bangalore University in 1994. “This was the age of the new tech entrepreneur and I was hugely inspired by the success of Infosys. I wanted to do something on my own,” recalls Kalra, who then began helping his sister and her husband with the St Marks Business Centre. “I would help them with design when I was still in college. It was here that I learnt the fundamentals of working with debit and credit.”

As his engineering course, he launched his own company in the services line. So, in 1995 he rented office space at St Marks and launched the St Marks CADD Services after obtaining a bank loan. “Around that time a lot of old engineering drawings were being digitised and I jumped onto the bandwagon. I got my first break with Tata Consulting Engineering and that set the ball rolling. We would digitise drafts and also engineer design and details,” says Kalra, who grew the team from a single member company to a team of 80 engineers.

A course in executive education and disruptive strategy at Harvard University, the world of mapping is his oyster.

Global Indian entrepreneur Bobbie Kalra

Mapping forth

Their next break came with projects for Kyga nuclear power plant, Bosche and other architects. In 1996, they landed a contract with Chicago Computerised Facility Integration (CFI). “They had a huge contract with AT&T and were looking for a company to work on the offshore model. We landed the deal and would work on the UNIX system when modem speeds were around 14kbps. We would go to the VSNL office to upload large files,” he smiles of a simpler yet tougher IT era.

Following the telecom bust CFI pivoted its model to focus on geospatial mapping. Soon Kalra’s company followed suit. They bought the first few licenses for the SIM software and turned their focus to the field of GIS. In 2000, Kalra founded Magnasoft by merging St Marks CADD Services and raised VC funds from Global Technology Ventures, the VC arm of Café Coffee Day Group. “Around this time the government changed in Karnataka and was looking to create a geospatial map of the Bangalore. We were invited to show how GIS could improve Bangalore city. So, while most other companies focused on power point presentations, what we did was focus on the heart of the municipal system: property taxation,” he tells Global Indian.

Within a week Kalra and his team came up with a property enumeration programme; they mapped a small area of the city (Richmond Town area), and conducted a survey keeping all the parameters that influenced taxation in mind. Magnasoft landed the contract and soon it was helping Bangalore increase its taxation by 100 percent.

[caption id="attachment_17796" align="aligncenter" width="580"] Global Indian entrepreneur Bobbie Kalra Bobbie with his family[/caption]

Pivoting the business

Like any entrepreneurial journey, Kalra’s was also speckled with challenges. But the company’s agility and Kalra’s foresight to pivot as per the need help them not just stay afloat but also grow slowly but steadily. After the dot com crash, Magnasoft began looking at markets abroad and invested directly in US sales. “Ever since, it has been a journey of accruals and reinvesting,” says the entrepreneur who moved to the US in 2002 to expand his business and focus on fundamental growth and cash flows.

Soon they had a presence in over 72 countries such as North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Middle East, Africa and New Zealand. As the market began opening up to GISM, Magnasoft too began to cause a disruption in the space. By 2008 though, Kalra moved back to India and

continued to shuttle between the US and India to work on his business. “Today, we’ve chosen to focus only on a few verticals such as utilities, communications, telecom, vegetation management for power lines, high tech, and infrastructure. We’ve also pared down our operations to just a few markets like North America, Scandinavia and UK apart from a few large enterprise deals in India,” says Kalra, who is now focused on direct sales and hiring talent for leadership roles in the US and UK.

Global Indian Bobbie Kalra

On the growth path

The company has also brought on board directors and advisors: Phaneesh Murthy, Abraham Mathew, Rajeev Kuchal, and Bhupinder Singh. “The board has been instrumental in helping us focus on a few strong points and strengthen our presence in those areas. The pandemic, of course, had thrown us off path for about a month, but the company was agile enough to get back on track within 30 days. Our staff was all working from home and we managed to put in space systems and security practices to ensure that work continued regardless,” says the agile entrepreneur, who typically begins his day 4 am.

What keeps him going is his love for mapping and the fact that he enjoys visualisation. That apart, Kalra also has a love for theatre and has in the past portrayed small roles in several plays, including Girish Karnad’s Crossing to Talikota. “Due to time constraints, I don’t take on any big roles, but I’ve loved essaying small roles and working on the back-end. I’ve also acted in a Kannada serial,” says the man, who has worked with theatre artistes like Arjun Sajnani, Munira Sen, and Ashish Sen.

On the weekends, jam sessions where he plays the guitar and percussion instruments is his energizing time. Incidentally, Kalra was a drummer back in his college days. That apart, he also believes in giving back to the community he lives and works in and is an active member of the Bangalore Round Table. “We have worked towards helping educate over 3 million children through the Freedom Through Education programme and during the pandemic we also worked towards procuring and distributing oxygen concentrators,” says the multi-faceted Kalra.

Incidentally, Bobbie, had also launched an ingenious app in Mumbai to protect children commuting to and fro from school. The app, Northstar was designed for both parents and school authorities to keep an eye on their children in real time. At heart, disruption is key to his goals, even as he takes time to give back to society, albeit tech wise.

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