Ankur Warikoo (Founder of Nearbuy.com) Wiki, Age, Education, Biography

Ankur Warikoo (born 25 August 1980) is an Indian internet entrepreneur, motivational speaker and angel investor based out of India. He is the co-founder of Nearbuy.com and served as the CEO from 2015 to 2019. Warikoo previously worked as the CEO of Groupon India + APAC, MD at Rocket Internet India, Co-founder at Accentium Web, and a management consultant at A.T. Kearney.

Early Life & Education

Ankur Warikoo was born and brought up in India.

Warikoo holds an MBA degree from The Indian School of Business, an MS in Physics from Michigan State University and a BS from Hindu College, Delhi University.

Warikoo completed his schooling at Don Bosco School, New Delhi, post which he joined Hindu College (BSc, Physics). He then pursued PhD in Physics from Michigan State University (MS, Astrophysics), which he dropped out from after completing his MS. Post coming back from the US, he pursued his MBA from The Indian School of Business, graduating in 2006.

Career

He is the co-founder of Nearbuy.com. He served as the CEO from Aug 2015 to October 2019. He announced his step down as the CEO in a LinkedIn post in October 2019. Warikoo started the Groupon India business in April 2011, which is when Groupon entered India through an acquisition. In addition to serving as the CEO of the India business, between 2013-2015 Warikoo also managed the Groupon APAC business of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. In August 2015, Groupon India went through a management buyout, where the India management team led by Ankur bought out the majority shareholding of Groupon, partnering with Sequoia Capital. In Dec 2017, nearbuy.com and Little App merged. The merged entity was led by Warikoo till 2019, along with two other co-founders from nearbuy.com – Snehesh Mitra (co-founder and CTO) and Ravi Shankar (co-founder and COO). Paytm made a strategic investment to acquire the majority of the merged entity. Post stepping down as the CEO of nearbuy.com, Ravi Shankar assumed 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. Warikoo was the Managing Director of the Rocket Internet India Founding Team and set the foundation for Jabong.com, before moving to help set up Groupon India. Previously, Ankur was the co-founder of Accentium Web, which owns and operates several websites in the Indian Consumer Space, namely SecondShaadi (a matrimonial service for remarriages), Gaadi.com (a car portal which got later sold to Naspers Group in 2011 and was acquired by CarDekho.com in 2015), amongst others. Ankur joined Accentium, which was founded by Vivek Pahwa (CEO) and exited the venture in September 2010. He started his career at NIS Sparta, which is a Reliance ADA Group company. He went to ISB to get a degree in management. Post ISB, Ankur joined A.T. Kearney in their consulting practice in India. While at Kearney, Warikoo worked in the Real Estate and Media & Entertainment sectors – in Dubai, New York and India. Accentium was founded in 2007, while he was still at Kearney (and continued to work until 2009 and assist Accentium in a part-time capacity). He moved full-time to Accentium in May 2009.

Personal Life

Achievements