On October 24, 2018, Tata Sons’ former Chairman, Cyrus Mistry, announced the formation of Mistry Ventures LLP that will invest in and nurture start-ups in India and across the world. Established with the aim of providing strategic insights and advice to businesses, incubate new ventures and provide seed, early stage and growth capital to start-ups, the VC firm is jointly promoted by Cyrus Mistry and his elder brother Shapoor Mistry, both promoters of Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group), a conglomerate operating in the engineering and construction, infrastructure, real estate among others. This announcement coincides with the second year of Cyrus Mistry’s ouster from Tata Sons, following a boardroom coup on October 24, 2016.
The investment plans of Mistry Ventures, which is registered as a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), will be finalised after the Diwali holidays. In an LLP, no partner is liable on account of the independent or unauthorized actions of other partners, thus allowing individual partners to be shielded from joint liability created by another partner’s wrongful business decisions or misconduct.
Cyrus is likely to head the venture.
Mistry Ventures will bring in Ashish Iyer, Senior Partner and ex-Global Leader, Strategy Practice at the Boston Consulting Group to lead the firm. Iyer has worked with companies across sectors globally and will bring comprehensive expertise across domains and capabilities such as strategy, go-to-market, digital and innovation. Cyrus Mistry said that the intent to deliver profit with positive social impact would be embedded in each of the ventures promoted or partnered with. “Mistry Ventures will do more than just invest in companies. By interpreting some of the major global and local trends and understanding their impact on industries and companies, we will incubate new businesses, forge partnerships and make investments across sectors. Mistry Ventures will focus on providing mentorship and infusing unique capability sets to help start-ups craft the appropriate business experiments needed to validate, scale and bring products and services faster to market,” he added.
Mistry, the sixth chairman of the Tata Group (2012 – 2016), was ousted following a board room coup on October 24, 2016. On December 20, 2016, through the family-run firm, Cyrus Investments, he moved the Mumbai Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against Tata Sons and others for oppression and mismanagement. In July 2017, NCLT dismissed Mistry’s petition, ruling in favour of Tata Sons, following which he moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in New Delhi.
