On October 6, Wednesday, Neeraj Chandra, a Founder & CEO of Arkit Consultants LLC and a TiE Boston board member died at a private hospital due to an unknown cause. He was the leader of its ScaleUp Accelerator program, an angel investor, and a seasoned technology executive with a long career in the corporate world around the globe.
A family friend living in Lexington, MA, Syed Ali Rizvi said, “It is very very shocking. He was at our home just a few days ago for dinner. He was very happy with what he was doing both professionally and personally. He was giving back to the society through non-profits and he was full of enthusiasm.”
Last week on Friday, at the Westin Hotel in Waltham, MA, Mr. Chandra attended the TiECON East conference and looked fit and healthy, even though he had a massive heart attack while visiting Mexico.
He was the founder and CEO of Arkit Consultants LLC, a business and strategy consulting firm focused on scaling up early-stage and high-growth companies, in Cloud, Blockchain, AI, and Internet of Things (IoT) domains.
Earlier, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Strategy for IBM in the Software Group. He was a seasoned Angel Investor and served on the Advisory Board of ConnectM Technology Solutions, Blustream Corporation, Elemental Labs, and Alivia Analytics.
Mr. Chandra was a game-changer who has completely dedicated himself to revenue growth and scaling business operations. He had a track record of success across a range of company sizes from early-stage venture-backed (I-Logix) through medium-size public companies (Telelogic) to a $1 billion+ division of multinational corporation ( IBM).
He served as the Chair of the TiE Boston ScaleUp Accelerator and had served as a mentor for a number of companies in the program.
When he was asked, “What’s next in your career?” for the TiE Boston member profile on their website. He explained, “ Over the next few years, I want to focus heavily on helping other entrepreneurs because I believe that it will create a flywheel with a multiplier effect. I am doing so through my Consulting, Advisory, and Angel investing activities. I usually invest in companies where I can take an active role. This allows me to make sure that the company will benefit from my skills, experience, and network, with the end goal of accelerated growth. From a future perspective, I am very interested in Blockchain technology and how it can potentially change the world. I would like to get more deeply involved with startups in this sector. I am currently an advisor for two Blockchain companies.”
Mr. Chandra belongs to Northern India. He was educated at Delhi University and has completed advanced management programs at the Harvard Business School.
After receiving his B.Com (Hons) degree from Sri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi and LL.B degree from Delhi University he had joined Tata Burroughs Ltd, as he was qualified for Tata Administrative Service (TAS) as his profile at TiE Boston.
He was asked to relocate to Paris as the marketing manager for the European and African region after a few years of his service. Furthermore, in France and Germany, he opened two additional marketing offices to take the business ahead.
After he returned to India, developed two major new businesses for Tata Burroughs; one with Computervision in the CAD/CAM market and the other with Microsoft in the PC software market.
Later, he joined Prime Computers Ltd, in England. After some time, Prime Computers UK asked him to move to the Corporate Headquarters in Boston. After playing a key part in the successful debut of Prime Computers under the name of Computervision as a publicly listed company, Mr. Chandra was sponsored to attend the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
After HBS, he joined a venture-backed start-up I-Logix and helped grow their revenues 6X during his tenure. At this point, a Swedish company Telelogic A.B. acquired the firm for a significant all-cash deal that made its investors and employees very happy. The CEO of Telelogic A.B. reached out and asked Mr. Chandra to stay back, post-acquisition, and help grow their company. He agreed and stayed with Telelogic A.B. for another two years until IBM acquired it for $750 million.
His passion was growing revenue and scaling business operations. . He was the key architect of the successful acquisition of venture-backed I-Logix Inc for $80M and publicly listed company Telelogic AB $845M.A career entrepreneur, he had a track record of success across a range of company sizes from early-stage venture-backed (I-Logix) through medium-size public companies (Telelogic AB, Prime/Computervision) to $1B+ division of multinational corporation (Rational Software, IBM Inc.)
His loss is acutely felt by his two sons, his extended family in India, and his beloved friends in New England. We pray that his soul transitions in peace.