Ambarish Mitra

Ambarish Mitra
Born (1979-03-09) March 9, 1979
Residence London, England, United Kingdom
Alma mater

London School of Economics and Political Science

University of London
Occupation CEO & Co-Founder of Blippar

Ambarish "Rish" Mitra (born March 9, 1979) is an Indian entrepreneur. He is best known for founding Blippar, a visual search and augmented reality (AR) company based in the United Kingdom, of which he is the CEO.[1]

Early life and education

Born into a middle class Indian family in Kolkata India, Mitra lived in Indian mining town Dhanbad till the age of 14 where he attended the De Nobili School, FRI. Mitra ran away from home as a teenager following a dispute with his family about his future.[2] He moved into a slum in Delhi where he worked selling magazines door-to-door by day, and in a tea stall by night.[3] While living the slum, Mitra entered and won a business plan competition for "e-businesses" which he spotted in an English-language newspaper, netting him $10,000 to start what would become womeninfoline.com, an internet portral for women.[2] After taking the company public with a successful IPO,[4] Mitra relocated to the United Kingdom to continue his education, earning a master's degree from the London School of Economics.[5]

Career

Following his graduation, Mitra continued his entrepreneurship by co-founding several startups,[5] including U.K. insurance provider Swiftcover where he served as Head of Innovation,[6] as well as a mobile social network called "Stuck".[7] In 2007, Swiftcover was acquired by AXA Insurance.[8] While working for AXA Insurance, Mitra met Omar Tayeb, and the two were inspired to create Blippar in 2011 after sharing a joke in a pub about imagining the Queen of England coming to life from a £20 note.[4]

Today, Mitra serves as CEO of Blippar.[1] Under Mitra's leadership, Blippar has won several technology and innovation awards, including being ranked #19 on CNBC's 2015 Disruptor 50 list.[9] and in January 2016, Blippar was named on Bloomberg's list of top UK Business Innovators and recognized by Business Insider as one of the most innovative companies.[10][11] In February 2016, Mitra was named as an ambassador for the British government's GREAT Britain campaign "to promote British innovation around the world."[12]

References

  1. 1 2 "Blippar Aims to Be the Future of Search Engines". wsj.com. July 11, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "A Year In A Delhi Slum". FastCompany. July 31, 2015.
  3. ↑ "How one CEO went from a teenage runaway living in an Indian slum to founding a billion-dollar company". Business Insider. August 18, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Growth capital: A blip on every screen: that’s the aim of ‘real-world browser’ Blippar". London Evening Standard. September 29, 2014.
  5. 1 2 "The $1bn unicorns - The Sunday Times". thesundaytimes.co.uk. March 29, 2015.
  6. ↑ "PSTF: Swiftcover brand boosted by non-insurance Iphone app". Post.
  7. ↑ "Ambarish Mitra: From runaway teen to tech genius and entrepreneur". DNA India. August 2, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Former Swiftcover exec Reames departs Axa". Post.
  9. ↑ "Meet the 2015 CNBC Disruptor 50 companies". CNBC. May 12, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Blippar - Bloomberg Business Innovators". Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  11. ↑ "The 21 most innovative startups in tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  12. ↑ "Blippar tech pioneer to showcase British innovation around the world". London Evening Standard. February 5, 2016.
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