Anupam Mittal

Anupam Mittal is an Indian entrepreneur, angel investor, former actor, and business executive. Mittal is best known as the founder of matrimonial website Shaadi.com, real-estate platform Makaan.com, short video application Mauj and media company Mobango. Anupam Mittal has gained major media attention after his participation in the Shark Tank India as one of the shark judges, since then, he is often interviewed by the media and seen meeting with notable Indian personalities. Mittal is noted as a popular entrepreneur of the Shark Tank India who has openly expressed to help young Indian entrepreneurs and shared that 2020-2030 decade will be for startups and entrepreneurship.
Mittal is one of India's early techpreneurs in India who has founded internet companies even before the internet bubble. Under his parent company People Group, he has also produced Bollywood movies including Flavors and 99. Mittal gained popularity when he appeared as one of sharks in the reality television series Shark Tank India. During the first season of Shark Tank India, Mittal has invested ₹5.338 crore in 24 companies. Mittal has been recognized as one of the fair sharks and caught attention of media and fans for it. During a Shark Tank India episode, while talking to one of the participating entrepreneur, Mittal shared that he should have not sold higher equity, a decision that he is regretting till now.
In an episode of Shark Tank India, Mittal disclosed that he has invested in over 200 startups, primarily in tech companies. According to GQ India, as of February 2022, his networth is $2 Billion.
==Early life and education==
Mittal was born on 23 December 1971 in Mumbai, India to Gopal Mittal and Bhagwati Mittal. For higher studies, he decided and moved to the United States in 1994. Mittal has completed his MBA in the Operating and Strategic Management from Boston College, United States.
==Career==
Mittal started his career as a product manager at MicroStrategy in 1998. He remained with the company for four years and Mittal had become a multi-millionaire in his early 20's with the first dotcom boom when his company was valuaed at $40 million and had purchased a Ferrari car too. After the crash of the dotcom bubble, he suffered major losses and had to come back to India.
Mittal started Sagaai.com as a matrimonial site with a total capital of $30,000 capital which was later rebranded as Shaadi.com to match with the business line. He bought the domain Shaadi.com in 2001 from someone for $25,000. He focused on creating a business around planned marriages as during early 2000, concept of love marriage in India was not accepted. He found that there is an intense obesssion and intense pressure to get married in India and there were limited opportunities to find a life partner in the country. He continued to focus on the internet business even with slow growth initially and within the first year, Shaadi.com were able to get their first 100 marriages, after focusing on NRIs. 
Later business of Shaadi.com picked up with the growth of internet and accessibility in India.
In an interview with BBC, he shared that he had his own fears when Facebook start getting high engagement and felt that it could be a possible matchmaking place and later realized that Facebook was in a completely different league. In July 2015, to focus on global expansion and new areas of business, Mittal stepped down as CEO from online matrimonial portal Shaadi.com.
In March 2016, Mittal started working as CEO of Shaadi.com after around a decade of being an investor majorly in start-up companies.
In December 2021, he is one of the investors or "sharks" in Indian business reality television series Shark Tank India. Again in October 2022, it was announced that Mittal will be again part of Shark Tank India Season 2.
===As an investor===
In 2007, Mittal successfully raised venture capital, which gave him liquid cash. In the same year, he made his first angel investment in an ad agency, Interactive Avenue. Interactive Avenue, later became one of the largest ad agency in India and Mittal as one of the largest shareholders of the company. In 2012, he sold his equity and made significant profits from it.
In 2011, someone shared about Ola Cabs to Mittal, a tech company that allows to book a taxi from phone. Initially, Mittal rejected the idea and one day when he traveled to Delhi and wasnt able to find a taxi, this clicked to him and decided to make the investment in Ola Cabs. He first invested only INR 1.5 million to become the first investor in Ola Cabs. Later, Mittal had again invested an undisclosed amount in Ola Cabs and holds 2% equity in the company.
By July 2015, Mittal had invested in around 200 start-up companies such as Interactive Avenues, Ola Cabs, Druva, Sapience Analytics, Pretty Secrets, Cafe Zoe, Peel Works, TaxSpanner, Fab Hotels, Ketto, Prop Tiger, BigBasket, FarEye, Lets Venture and more. While as one of the shark in Shark Tank India, he rose to prominence as an angel investor and made investment in 24 companies: Heart up my Sleeves, Cosiq, Revamp Moto, Skippi Pops, Vivalyf Innovations- Easy Life, Meatyour, ARRCOAT Surface Textures, LOKA, Annie, Caragreen, The Yarn Bazaar, Cocofit, Bamboo India, Let's Try, Find Your Kicks India, IN A CAN, The Quirky Nari, Hair Originals, The Sass Bar, PawsIndia, Sunfox Technologies, Watt Technovations, Tweek Labs and Jain Shikanji. In 23 offers, he had colloborated with other sharks and in ARRCOAT Surface Textures, a pain manufacturing company he was the sole shark and as a solo angel investor he had invested ₹50 lakhs for 15% equity.
A news was published by Indian Express, which headlined that Anupam Mittal admitted that during Shark Tank India episodes, he has also made a few deals just out of FOMO.
As an investor, Mittal has exited from 12 notable companies such as Vebbler, Truebil, StayAbode, simsim, Shaadisaga, Pipemonk, Near.in, HashLearn, DailyNinja and Blink. 
In an interview with Ramesh Somani, Mittal has shared that he has not invested in Crypto currencies but he has invested in crypto companies and he believes that cryptos will be interesting in the future.
===Bollywood and acting career===
Mittal had a keen interest in Bollywood and the entertainment industry. He has played camro roles and also produced a couple of movies: Flavors (2003) and 99 (2009). In June 2022, Mittal appeared in a short film Anupam Ki Shaadi, primarily created to promote Shaadi.com.
===Public speaking===
Mittal often speaks on the topics of entrepreneurship, raising capital and startup culture in the media. He shared his opinion that 2020-2030 decade will be for entrepreneurs in India. Mittal has often expressed his opinion on the scalability of business and how to increase revenues.
Mittal suggests entrepreneurs to believe in themselves, else they wont be able to walk even 10 steps forward. He has coined a new term for entrepreneurship, SEXY.
==Boards and memberships==
Mittal sits on a number of boards, some of them include:
* LetsVenture Online 
* Zepo 
* Chymera VR
* HousingComplex
* ShaadiSaga 
* Grip Kae Capital
==Awards==
Mittal was awarded as Outstanding Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Mumbai in its second year of "Hall of Fame" 2020 awards.
In 2015, Mittal received Karmaveer Puraskaar award from iCONGO. He has also been named in BusinessWeek's list of 50 Most Powerful People in India.
==Anupam Mittal interviews and media appearances==
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==Personal life==
Mittal got married on 4 July 2013 to his long-time girlfriend model Aanchal Kumar at Jaipur palace. The couple has one daughter. In a news published in GQ India, it shared that Mittal is also a team of a boat racing team, Team Sharks.
Mittal is known for his extravagant lifestyle and he owns a number of high-end luxury cars including Lamborghini Huracan, Audi S5 and Mercedes Benz S-Class. He live in a posh area, Cuff Parade in Mumbai and owns a luxury home there.
Mittal has always been always noted for his soft behaviour and to avoid controverisies, even when the media was behind to take his reaction after Ashish Chanchlani's Shark Tank India spoof video, he replied to ignore him and said that even he needs to do something for his bread and butter.
==References==
== External links ==
* People Group
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Category:1971 births
Category:Living people
Category:Indian businesspeople
Category:Indian investors
Category:Indian founders
Category:Indian chief executives
Category:Indian people
Category:Boston College alumni