Ashok Narasimhan

Entrepreneur, Investor and Researcher

📍 San Francisco Bay Area, United States🔄 Updated September 2026💼 4 investments📅 26 years investing🗓 Last invested Jan 2004
VC🌍 United States
4
Total investments
0
Early stage
3
Mid stage
1
Late stage
26y
Years active

Portfolio

4 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Board member
2004
Rediff.com India Pvt. Ltd (NASDAQ: REDF) is a leading news media and online marketplace in India, focusing on providing world-class online business and consumer offerings. Our websites in India and North America consist of various communication services, such as consumer and enterprise email, our own editorial content as well as real time news which brings fresh and recent news sourced from over 30,000 news sites. Rediff Business Email: Rediff provides a reliable and secure enterprise class email solution which appeals to businesses of all sizes. A high availability platform with no single point of failure, an easy way to backup and restore the mail, seamless experience on mobile with secured connectivity for accessing data critical to business and policies for data loss prevention (DLP) make Rediffmail Enterprise platform ready to addresses data safety and security challenges. The Enterprise Email solution is based on Rediffs popular free Rediffmail platform. Rediff Shopping: Our online shopping marketplace connects a large number of merchants with consumers throughout India and enables them to sell national and localized products and services across a wide variety of vertical markets, including apparel and accessories, electronics, home décor and furnishings, mobile phones and accessories, automobiles, toys, games, books and a host of other sough after categories. Rediff Labs: Rediff Labs aggregates and analyzes large data sets to uncover statistics that paint a new picture on issues such as deadly disease mortalities, literacy rates, employment and other issues across the length and breadth of the country. The service offers news in an interactive and visual format backed by large data sets with the objective of converting data into something easily understood and meaningful for users Rediff.coms website works seamlessly across almost all PC and mobile browsers and is also available in the form of apps on the Android and iOS platforms.
Board member
2003
Tarang Software is a leading Electronic Payments Solution provider having two decades of leadership in digital payments.We are the preferred offshore development partner for businesses including Fortune 500 as well as emerging startups. Our customers include – Banks, Payment Acquirers, Card Associations, POS terminal manufacturers and Retailers. Headquartered in Bangalore India we work with customers located in N America, Europe and Middle East, Africa and SE Asia. Tarang understands the whole nine yards of the Payments cycle and hence has developed solutions such as - Multicurrency Omni channel Payment Gateway Solution,AI Based Fraud Management solution, Digital Wallet capable of handling international money transfers, Contactless Payment solutions such as NFC and HCE. We are the No 1 firm in India in POS software development and have worked on Ingenico, Verifone, Spire, PAX and Spectra terminals on their Linux terminals. Our more recent work includes Android based POS software. Besides Payments there is a host of expertise we offer which include the technology Landscape Modernization – Micro Services, Continuous CI/CD deployment, Open Shift deployment We have a secondary practice in Digital Training – E learning and Video led Training courseware development for Fortune 500 firms. you can reach us info@tarangtech.com.
Board member
2002
Founded in 1999, Avendus partners with high-performing entrepreneurs, institutions, and wealth creators to discover potential and shape success at every stage of their journey. We offer bespoke solutions in Investment Banking, Institutional Equities, Wealth Management, Asset Management, and Credit Solutions. With 600+ Avenders across 11 cities in India, the US, and Southeast Asia, we operate at the intersection of the most discerning pools of capital and India’s most dynamic value creators, connecting the right opportunities at the right time with intent and precision. Backed by strong networks across private and public funds, strategics, and family offices, and nearly 2,500+ trusted client relationships, we combine insight, access, and flawless execution. Our expertise spans six high-impact sectors and 50+ sub-sectors, enabling us to identify and unlock unique value creation opportunities for our clients.
Board Member
Feb 2000
We help web publishers, service providers, and app developers monetize through Internet search solutions. We offer consumers an enhanced search experience. We partner with some of the biggest names on the Internet, like Google, Yahoo, and Yandex. We also operate our own consumer branded sites that include How Stuff Works®, Zoo®, Dogpile®, Webcrawler®, and Nation
Experience · 10 entries
All (10)
Investments (4)
Founder (5)
Board (4)
2014
CEO & co-founder
Oct 2014
Omnyway (previously known as OmnyPay) empowers retailers, banks and brands to build a contextual digital commerce ecosystem that encourages shoppers to use their mobile phone for all aspects of their buying journey. Omnyway creates a dynamic digital channel between the retailer and the shopper across all channels of interaction - in store, online, in-app, virtual aisle and dynamic media, using any smart mobile device. The white label platform augments existing legacy back end systems and integrates into existing mobile apps in order to provide personalized experience to shoppers - one that leads to greater loyalty and increases revenue.
CEO & co-founder
Oct 2014
Omnyway (previously known as OmnyPay) empowers retailers, banks and brands to build a contextual digital commerce ecosystem that encourages shoppers to use their mobile phone for all aspects of their buying journey. Omnyway creates a dynamic digital channel between the retailer and the shopper across all channels of interaction - in store, online, in-app, virtual aisle and dynamic media, using any smart mobile device. The white label platform augments existing legacy back end systems and integrates into existing mobile apps in order to provide personalized experience to shoppers - one that leads to greater loyalty and increases revenue.
2008
co-Founder, CEO
May 2008
Runa increases sales for online retailers profitably! Instead of offering flat/site-wide discounts to everyone, Runa entices shoppers to buy using Smart Deals. The right deal is made to the right shopper on the right product/s at the right time. All of this is done while the shopper is still on the site. Runa has the ability to assess each shopping session based on a number of factors. This information is used by our sophisticated engine, in real-time, to determine a shopper’s buying intent. Based on a shopper’s buying intent, a personalized deal may be presented to the shopper at that moment in time. By offering Smart Deals, Runa is able to significantly increase profits without additional marketing spend!
2007
Advisor
2007
"Discovery of Disruptive Innovations & Actionable Ideas"​ VLAB brings together entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts, innovators, and curious minds to explore ideas and technologies that have the potential to disrupt entire industries, create business opportunities, and shape the future. We host the largest ongoing gathering of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and thought leaders at our monthly events in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. With a community of over 25,000+ Bay Area influencers, VLAB identifies technologies, ideas and people that will catalyze a disruption in existing industries. Established in November 1990, VLAB has been a premier forum in Silicon Valley for 25 years. Past panel participants have included CEOs and senior-level executives from companies such as Yahoo!, Tesla Motors, Siri, Google, Tellme, Mint, Cloudera, and LinkedIn. We also provide opportunities for top VCs to weigh in on the conversations from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sequoia, Mayfield, USVP, Hummer Winblad, and New Enterprise Associates. Visit us here: Website: http://vlab.org Blog: https://vlab.org/our-blog/ Youtube: http://youtube.com/vlabvideos Facebook: http://facebook.com/vlaborg Twitter: http://twitter.com/vlab
2004
Board member
2004
Rediff.com India Pvt. Ltd (NASDAQ: REDF) is a leading news media and online marketplace in India, focusing on providing world-class online business and consumer offerings. Our websites in India and North America consist of various communication services, such as consumer and enterprise email, our own editorial content as well as real time news which brings fresh and recent news sourced from over 30,000 news sites. Rediff Business Email: Rediff provides a reliable and secure enterprise class email solution which appeals to businesses of all sizes. A high availability platform with no single point of failure, an easy way to backup and restore the mail, seamless experience on mobile with secured connectivity for accessing data critical to business and policies for data loss prevention (DLP) make Rediffmail Enterprise platform ready to addresses data safety and security challenges. The Enterprise Email solution is based on Rediffs popular free Rediffmail platform. Rediff Shopping: Our online shopping marketplace connects a large number of merchants with consumers throughout India and enables them to sell national and localized products and services across a wide variety of vertical markets, including apparel and accessories, electronics, home décor and furnishings, mobile phones and accessories, automobiles, toys, games, books and a host of other sough after categories. Rediff Labs: Rediff Labs aggregates and analyzes large data sets to uncover statistics that paint a new picture on issues such as deadly disease mortalities, literacy rates, employment and other issues across the length and breadth of the country. The service offers news in an interactive and visual format backed by large data sets with the objective of converting data into something easily understood and meaningful for users Rediff.coms website works seamlessly across almost all PC and mobile browsers and is also available in the form of apps on the Android and iOS platforms.
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Investment activity
2000–2004 · 4 investments
20001200212003120041
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