Varadarajan Krishna (Varad) is a global serial techpreneur and angel investor with over 34 years of hands on experience in building and scaling technology ventures across various domains, such as embedded software, KPM, telecom, and cleantech. He has been through multiple exits, including two IPOs, and has been part of teams that developed multiple patents and IP assets. Has a strong background in ECEngg and in Advance Technology Entrepreneurship of Venture Labs of Stanford University. Varad is passionate about fostering open innovation ecosystems and mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide. Over the years, he has mentored over 300 founders either through cohorts of incubation and acceleration programs in India and overseas that he had been running or even individually when they seek his guidance. Some of these institutional incubators include: IIITB, DERBI, BRTSIF, SINE IITB, SIIC IITK, IITM RP, ecells at IITM, IITB, Sastra Engg, to name a few. He has been regularly participating as a keynote speaker, chief guest, panelist and also grand jury to adjudicate winners at Demo Day events worldwide. Varad is currently a Strategic Advisor and Partner at UK India Cross Border Next Generation Fund III where his role is to identify emerging opportunities for early stage investments and thereafter convert them into a winning portfolio. He is also a Senior Advisor at the TiH cluster with the goal to bring Innovations to the market in the fastest time. The outcomes from these activities and others are then connected to The 100 Open Startups platform thereby growing and scaling them globally leading to the growth and sustainability of the innovation ecosystems.