Movers and Shakers Of The Week [Oct 7-12]

We bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Jaime Ardila Joins Ola Electric’s board

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd has appointed Jaime Ardila as a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Jaime is a veteran in the automobile industry, having spent 30 years at General Motors, where he held multiple leadership roles across the globe. 

In his most recent role, Jaime was Executive Vice President and President, South America Operations, GM, being responsible for operations in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. He currently serves as the Chairman of the board for Goldman Sachs BDC Inc, member of the board for Accenture PLC, Nexa Resources and is also the founder of Hawksbill Group, a diversified business and communications consulting firm.

Ola Electric is focused on enabling sustainable mobility for a billion people. The company is currently running several pilots across India to deploy electric vehicles and charging solutions, including battery swapping stations, primarily focused on developing a viable value proposition for the end-user. 

Ascent Health Hires Senior Ex-Flipkart Executive As VP – Engineering

Digital healthcare platform Ascent Health announced that they have strengthened their senior management, in partnership with Purple Quarter. Ascent has appointed Suyash Motarwar as Vice President – Engineering, Ascent Health.

Motarwar joined Ascent Health from Flipkart where he was working as Director Of Engineering. He holds a degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Amravati University.

As of now, Ascent claims to have an annual GMV in excess of $300 Mn, growing at a CAGR of 100% YoY for the last three years through its combination of organic and inorganic measures.

Lendingkart Appoints New CEO For Its NBFC Arm 

Fintech platform Lendingkart has appointed Mithun Sundar as the new CEO for Lendingkart Finance Limited, a non-deposit taking NBFC arm of Lendingkart group.  Bringing over 15 years of experience, Mithun has vast industry experience in scaling businesses, driving growth, operational strategies and delivering significant top and bottom-line impact.

Coming from a Data led environment with high tech and product understanding, Mithun Sundar has worked with best companies like PepsiCo, Mckinsey and Hindustan Unilever. At Lendingkart Finance, Mithun will bring in his lateral thinking to bolster the next growth phase for the company.

In his new role, Mithun will drive growth and access to working capital for MSMEs across the Lendingkart platform.

16 Year Old Girl Joins As Product Engineer At FTwo

Delhi based FTwo an enterprise tech venture has appointed 16-year old Khushboo as one of the newest product engineers. The team is behind Square1 – an enterprise e-commerce solution, used by Vodafone, 10digi and more. 

An alumnus and scholar of the School of Accelerated Learning, an alternate school creating the next generation of techies in India, Khushboo completed their 14-week program in product engineering alongside her 10th-grade exam. And Khusboo isn’t the only one. Two other scholars – Rani & Pooja too are working with accomplished companies such as ThoughtWorks after graduating from SOAL’s bootcamp instead of gaining their college degrees. 

Already well versed in hot tech such as JavaScript & MERN Stack, she is now working on building MakeMeTrader, a product dedicated to making trading easier for the average Indian, and all of this without a computer science college degree in tow. This teenager is now being paid as much as the average 21-year-old Indian computer science graduate.

According to a survey by Aspire Minds, 80% of engineering students are unemployable even after spending 16 years and tons of money on education. Furthermore, according to a report by McKinsey & Company, estimated job cuts in the IT sector to be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually until 2021 due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Movers and Shakers of the week!