Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Angel

Investor Stage

Seed

At 31, Sachin Dev Duggal is an innovator, serial entrepreneur, and an advocate of enterprise that touches lives and benefits the world at large.He is the co-founder of shoto – a new startup that lets find unseen photos from your friends when you were together using location, your phonebook, and an algorithm that understands the nature of the moment and who was there.

Sachin was the co-founder of nivio (which he exited in 2012 after taking it to a $100m valuation), the company that first made Windows available over the Internet. He sits on the board of Planet M (a large Indian retail chain), Chairs his original technology solutions company SD 2 Labs, and is an advisor to Eros Digital; the digital arm of Bollywood’ premiere distribution company.

Sachin’s profile is an unusual mix of experiences & serendipity. He was an entrepreneur at 15, worked for the United Nations and helped write the declaration of youth rights before he completed his first degree from Imperial College. Sachin has also built a successful software business (www.sd2labs.com) and was a young investment-banker (at Deutsche Bank) building complex trading models at 17. The software company continues to grow year on year and now has just over 100 people in India and the US.

Sachin started his public foray very early in life, at the age of 12 he went on stage in front of 1200 people and the world media to demand something be done about the state of the environment. He began his professional career at the age of 15, when he formed SMX Corporation (now sd2labs) along with his best friend. In August 2004, Sachin co-founded nivio with a view to disrupt the old compute model; and got seed funding from two of his bosses! Fast forward to 4 years later, nivio was selected as a technology pioneer at the World Economic Forum in January, 2009. Sachin made history in being the youngest attendees at the WEF in Davos. He left nivio in 2012 to start on a new idea having put together a world-class team to grow the business.

Sachin’s an avid and recent believer of Vipassana and that life is a zero-sum game – so its essential to spend our time giving; this is one of the main reasons he has put aside stock in all major businesses he works in with Saurabh to their foundation and other notable charities such as Keep a Child Alive – the charity that Sachin & Saurabh’s foundation worked with to raise 4m USD for children in India and South Africa with Aids in 2011.

Sachin’s other accolades include the MIT TR35 Indian Innovator of the Year, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Leader of Tomorrow, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, the BBC Young Asian achiever of the Year and UNEP Global 500 Youth Award. Sachin is also the Youth Leader of the National Computer and Electronics Committee of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
But the real desire and mission has always been on the dream of 100x50 (100m kids educated in 50 years) through their Sachin & Saurabh Foundation, a not-for-profit set up to deliver that dream.

Sachin Dev Dugal is currently the Chief Wizard at Builder.