Ratan Tata’s two decades as chairman of Tata Sons was a period of expansion for the 144-year-old group. His appointment in 1991 came just a few months before India announced its first major liberalisation of the economy, and Mr. Tata took full advantage. Under his leadership, the group multiplied its overall sales by 43 times and also became one of the first Indian companies to make major overseas acquisitions.
Ratan Tata said he would make a 100,000 rupee ($1,800) car and he delivered. In 2008, the first Nano — the world’s cheapest car — was revealed to the public.
New Ventures
During Mr. Ratan Tata’s tenure, the Tatas entered sectors such as housing, realty, infrastructure, retail, satellite television and power distribution..
When he retired in 2012, rattan tata had let it be known he wanted to reach out to people and have them drawn from the trusts expertise to give a strong push to new business. Since then, Tata has been actively working on those words.
Ratan Tata puts the word angel in “angel investor”. A little over Rs.20 crore. That’s how much Ratan Naval Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company that controls the Tata group, has pumped into 10 Indian start-ups over the last 18 months.July 3, 2015 Internet Saathi
On the heels of Narendra Modi’s Digital India announcement, Tata Trust tied up with Google and Intel and kicked off the Net Initiative for women, which will strive and bring the internet to more and more women in rural India.
July 1, 2015 – Ola
Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola Cabs’ CEO made the announcement on Twitter. He said that his company “can now learn from the rich experience of one of the finest business leaders of our times”, in a blogpost on the Ola Cabs website.
June 2015 – Fashion portal Kaaryah
Nidhi Agarwal Kashyap now boasts of Ratan Tata as an investor in her online fashion portal that deals with non-casual wear for women. She literally got Tata’s attention via an email.
February 8, 2015 – cardekho.com
Started by two IIT-Delhi graduates, Anuraj and Amit Jain, and cardekho let’s users buy, sell and compare prices of various cars in the market. It also reviews cars. The same duo also run bikedekho.com.
March 2015, Grameen Capital
The Mumbai-based investment advisory company focuses on the impact investments space, ranging from microfi nance companies to education and healthcare venture catering to the bottom-of-the-pyramid segment. Tata, along with mining tycoon Shrinivas Dempo and investment banker Vikram Gandhi, picked up equity in the NBFC which will lend to social enterprises.
March 2015-One97 Communications (Paytm)
The Noida-based company has successfully transitioned from a value-added services player to an online wallet Paytm, which it says now has 80 million accounts. The company is now moving into etailing as it looks to compete with Flipkart and Snapdeal
Status Now: Before Ratan Tata’s investment was announced, One97 said it had raised $575 million from Alibaba’s affi liate, Alipay.
April 2015-Xiaomi
The Chinese smartphone maker launched in India last year, with its product becoming an instant hit in the market, with inventory running out in minutes. Founded by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun, Xiaomi is said to have recorded sales of $12 billion in 2014
Status Now: Xiaomi is the world’s most valuable privately-held tech startup, with a fi nancing round in December 2014 pegging its worth $45 billion.
August 27, 2014 Snapdeal
Ratan Tata’s invested an undisclosed amount into India’s e-commerce website Snapdeal.com that is backed by Kalaari Capital. The portal also has Wipro’s Azim Premji as an investor.
