Protected: Mr. Debu Purkayastha
CEO-Aurelius; Managing Partner-3rd Eye, Former Google Senior Executive for Global Mergers, Acquisitions and Investments; Board Member-Cambridge Enterprise/University of Cambridge
Protected: Mr. Debu Purkayastha
CEO-Aurelius; Managing Partner-3rd Eye, Former Google Senior Executive for Global Mergers, Acquisitions and Investments; Board Member-Cambridge Enterprise/University of Cambridge
Debu Purkayastha is Managing Partner at 3rd Eye, a Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) entity investing in the technology, media & telecoms (TMT) sectors globally.
Debu has significant Investment/M&A and operating experience - in US, Europe, Asia & Africa. Debu spent almost 6 years at Google during its hypergrowth phase, spearheading its M&A and Investment efforts globally including landmark acquisitions & investments. Debu also spearheaded Google’s New Business Development team that was instrumental in launching/developing several of Google’s iconic products globally spanning multiple key strategic focus areas – some, like Google Maps, You Tube & Android, are amongst the most used apps/operating systems in the world with billions of users – daily! Debu was instrumental in setting up Google’s Travel “Vertical Search” business - with pathbreaking acquisitions like ITA Software – which today is amongst Google’s biggest revenue generating businesses. Debu is a founding member of Google “Campus”, the pre-eminent co-working space for startups in London’s Tech City/Shoreditch, which led to the formation of the famous “Google for Startups” program. Post-Google, Debu was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Octopus Investments (preeminent European VC, AUM $12B+) doing technology VC investments.
Prior to Google, Debu was in NYSE listed travel company Sabre's Corporate Development/M&A team (sold to private equity in a $5B+ transaction – one of the biggest ever “take private” in the online travel sector) & in a past life was a Technology /Media /Telecoms M&A Banker with Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in Wall Street, Silicon Valley & London (highlight: $160B AOL/Time Warner merger – biggest ever M&A deal in history).
From an education perspective, Debu sits on the Boards of Cambridge University/Cambridge Enterprise (which has significant Tech & Life Sciences investments and IP interests) and International Schools Services in Princeton, USA (non-profit in global international school education) apart from the MBA Programme Board at London Business School (LBS).
Debu is also Finance & Audit Committee member of the National Gallery in London (globallyTop 3 Art Museum founded in 1824) & on the Advisory Board of Global Tech Advocates/Tech London Advocates (world’s largest tech community).
In Healthcare, Debu used to sit on the Board of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (one of the largest NHS Hospital Trusts in the UK with a ~$3B turnover) &was a Senior Strategic Advisor to Meridian Health Ventures (only NHS backed VC Fund currently in the UK) apart from which he used to be Chair of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation (500 year old British foundation and charity with endowment assets of ~$1.5B). Debu used to be Chair of the Advisory Board of Veon (global mobile telco – annual revenues ~$10B+), Advisory Board of Unilever PLC (Market Cap: ~$125B) & on the Boards of Mercy Corps (one of the biggest global NGOs – annual budget ~$500M+), Tadaweb (Cyber), HTL/Scandic (largest hotel chain in Scandinavia), DataFlow (data verification), Fon (wireless – for Google), Mobile Planet (mobile apps – for Google) plus the prestigious Technology Pioneers Selection Committee at World Economic Forum (WEF) amongst others.
Debu was Senior Advisor to EQT (one of world’s biggest private equity funds, AUM $300B+) advising on late stage, big-ticket TMT PE investments & Senior Strategic Advisor to the CEO & Board of PRS for Music (biggest European music rights society - 2nd biggest globally).
Debu has an MBA from London Business School & is a qualified Chartered Accountant.