GSF Ropes In redBus Co-Founder Phanindra Sama & Angel Investor Manish Dalal As Venture Partners

GSF, the Delhi based startup accelerator, has roped in redBus cofounder Phanindra Sama and Manish Dalal as new strategic advisors and venture partners to its team.

Phanindra Sama, based out of Bangalore, co-founded redBus.in and sold it to Naspers earlier last year in 2013. Mumbai based Manish Dalal has over 20 years of leadership experience in the Internet and mobile space at blue chip companies like Yahoo, Motorola and Verisign, both in the US and in Asia.

GSF’s founder, Rajesh Sawhney said, “At GSF, a Venture Partner is either an accomplished startup founder; a seasoned executive with deep domain expertise; or an investor with networks in global geographies relevant to GSF portfolio companies. A venture partner helps GSF to diligence deals during the selection of cohort every six months and takes on board/advisor responsibilities in some of its portfolio companies.”

With this, apart from Rajesh Sawhney, GSF will now have two full-time operating partners, four part-time advisors in addition to entrepreneurs-in-residence. GSF has a network of 40 plus Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and 300 mentors spread across the world.

GSF’s 16 out of 25 startups from the first two batches have successfully raised seed financing, 6 have raised series A funding and 3 have had successful exits. Earlier this year, one of GSF’s portfolio company, Little Eye Labs, was acquired by Facebook, which was reportedly said to be a deal in the $10-15 Mn range.

Recently, GSF had joined in with 11 other leading accelerators from 10 different Asian markets, for the DreamPlus Alliance, an initiative of the Hanwha Group, the Korean conglomerate. One of its startup Whatfix, which was part of the Accelerator’s batch, announced earlier this year that it had won USD 300k in funding at the inaugural DreamPlus Alliance Day in Seoul and was declared the best startup in Asia.