TEAM elects governing council to accelerate $50B Mumbai Tech Ecosystem

Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) today concluded its first-ever elections and announced an eight-member Governing Council for a two-year term starting April 1, 2024. 46 Mumbai headquartered unicorn & soonicorn founders participated in the elections, electing Aakrit Vaish, Co-founder & CEO, Jio Haptik and Harsh Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Dream11 & Dream Sports as the association’s co-chairs.

 Other members of the elected Governing Council for 2024-26 are: Vishal Gondal, Co-founder & CEO, GOQii; Dhruvil Sanghvi, Founder & CEO, LogiNext; Akanksha Hazari, Founder & CEO, LoveLocal; Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, upGrad; Naiyya Saggi, Co-founder, The Good Glamm Group; and Vivek Khemani,

Co-founder, Quantiphi

This election is significant as it represents Mumbai’s vibrant $50 billion tech ecosystem across companies in SaaS, sports tech, gaming, logistics, commerce, healthcare, fintech, edtech, proptech, martech and infrastructure sectors.

 Speaking about the journey, Aakrit Vaish, Co-founder & CEO, Jio Haptik, and co-chair for TEAM said: ”The first year of TEAM was simply putting Mumbai tech on the map. It was about galvanising the existing community of unicorn & soonicorn founders. Now that the foundation is in place, the next 2 years are going to be all about grassroot development.

 We want every young founder and engineer to start thinking of Mumbai as one of their top choices to build a startup. Honoured to Chair such an accomplished Governing Council to drive us all towards that mission.”

 Commenting on the vision, Harsh Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Dream11 & Dream Sports, and co-chair for TEAM said: ”Mumbai as a tech hub has been thriving and we are making sure the world knows about it. TEAM will play a key role in contributing towards India’s Techade and our hon’ble PM’s vision of a $1 Trillion tech ecosystem. It is an honour to co-chair this organisation and work closely with the government and industry to keep growing Mumbai’s tech ecosystem exponentially.” 

TEAM is a non-profit, independent industry association, formed in October 2022 by some of India’s most successful tech entrepreneurs, with a mission to advance Mumbai’s tech ecosystem. In just about 1.5 years, TEAM brought together 46 of Mumbai’s unicorns and soonicorns and undertook some exemplary initiatives putting Mumbai’s tech in the spotlight.

Its recently concluded flagship event ‘Mumbai Tech Week’ was a first-of-its-kind collaboration of Mumbai’s tech community, that got together 4,000+ tech enthusiasts, 50+ high profile speakers from the government and tech world, offered 100+ jobs, and an opportunity for startups to pitch to the investors. 

Given its significance to the overall Indian startup ecosystem, MTW also received a special commendation by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi; and support from key stakeholders - Smt. Smriti Irani, Shri. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, Shri. Amitabh Kant, and Mumbai Police Commissioner Shri. Vivek Phansalkar.

TEAM also signed an MoU with the Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra for the groundbreaking ‘Mumbai Megapolis Metaverse  to showcase ongoing infrastructure developments and envision the transformation of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) by 2025 through a digital twin project.

The project was officially launched at the Mumbai Tech Week and was demoed in the presence of the DCM of Maharashtra, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, and is now live for citizens to experience Mumbai in the metaverse.

TEAM’s areas of focus center around creating a supportive environment cementing Mumbai as a global hub for the venture  and startup ecosystem and to support India’s potential to be a trillion dollar digital economy.  The operating principles it is built on are in creating macro and micro communities of founders, CXOs, teams, institutionalised inclusive mentorship opportunities for younger ventures and teams along with building infrastructure and skilling capabilities with strategic government, venture and corporate partnerships.