Ankur Warikoo ( 25 August 1980) is an Indian internet entrepreneur. He is also a motivational speaker and angel investor based out of India. He is the co-founder of Nearbuy.com and served as the CEO of Nearbuy.com from 2015 to 2019. Warikoo previously worked as the CEO of Groupon India + APAC, MD at Rocket Internet India. He also served as a Co-founder at Accentium Web, and a management consultant at A.T. He was born and brought up in India.
Warikoo holds a degree in MBA from The Indian School of Business. Also, he holds an MS in Physics from Michigan State University and a BS from Hindu College in Delhi University.
Warikoo completed his schooling at Don Bosco School, New Delhi. He then joined Hindu College (BSc, Physics). Further Warikoo pursued PhD in Physics from Michigan State University (MS, Astrophysics). He then dropped out after completing his MS. After coming back from the US, he pursued his MBA from The Indian School of Business. He completed his graduation in 2006.
Career:
Warikoo is the co-founder of Nearbuy.com and served as the CEO in Nearbuy.com from Aug 2015 to October 2019. He also announced his stepping down as the CEO in a LinkedIn post in October 2019. In April 2011, Warikoo started the Groupon India business, which is when Groupon entered India through an acquisition.
In addition to his role as a CEO of the India business, which he served between 2013-2015, Warikoo also managed the Groupon APAC business of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines and in August 2015, Groupon India went through a management buyout. The India management team led by Ankur bought out the majority shareholding of Groupon, which partnered with Sequoia Capital.
In Dec 2017, Nearbuy.com and Little App merged together, and this merged entity was led by Warikoo till 2019. It was then led along with two other co-founders from nearbuy.com. They are Snehesh Mitra (co-founder and CTO) and Ravi Shankar (co-founder and COO).
Paytm made a strategic investment in order to acquire the majority of the merged entity. Post stepping down as the CEO of nearbuy.com, Ravi Shankar took up the role of the CEO and Snehesh Mitra that of the COO. Prior to Groupon, Warikoo was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Rocket Internet Gmbh. He was also the Managing Director of the Rocket Internet India Founding Team. He then set the foundation for Jabong.com, before he moved to help set up Groupon India.
Earlier, Ankur was the co-founder of Accentium Web. Accentium web owns and operates several websites in the Indian Consumer Space. Some of them are SecondShaadi (a matrimonial service for remarriages), Gaadi.com (a car portal which got later sold to Naspers Group in 2011. This was later acquired by CarDekho.com in 2015), amongst others. Ankur joined Accentium, and it was first founded by Vivek Pahwa (CEO).
Warikoo made an exit from the venture in September 2010. He then started his career at NIS Sparta, which is under Reliance ADA Group company and then entered ISB to get a degree in management. After ISB, Ankur joined A.T. Kearney in their consulting practice in India. While at the same time Warikoo worked in the Real Estate and Media & Entertainment sectors. he worked in Dubai, New York and India. Accentium was initially founded in 2007, while he was still at Kearney, and he moved full-time to Accentium in May 2009.
Personal Life
Ankur Warikoo is married to Ruchi Budhiraja Warikoo, and they have 2 children named Vidur and Uzma.
Warikoo is a social media personality and posts many inspiring videos on entrepreneurship, life, and motivation. His motto is, “DO EPIC SHIT,” where DO is action, EPIC is a cause larger than oneself and SHIT is having fun. He has a belief that awareness is everything.
Achievements
- LinkedIn India Spotlight 2019
- LinkedIn India Top Voice 2018
- LinkedIn India PowerProfile 2018
- ISB Young Leader Award 2005-06 Indian School of Business
- India’s Most Promising Entrepreneur Award (2013) Enterprise Asia March 2014
- Top Executives Below 40 Years (2014) – Business Today Magazine
- “30 Entrepreneurs of the year 2017” by SiliconReview
Social Profiles
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/warikoo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/awarikoo
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ankurwarikoo
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/warikoo
, Gaadi.com (a car portal which got later sold to Naspers Group in 2011.){kind=link}