Sunil Rao

Sunil Rao joined Lightspeed India Partners Advisors LLP (LSIP) in 2016 as a Partner (Business Services) and is focused on providing a broad range of business development, recruiting and value-add services to the Lightspeed India portfolio companies.

Prior to LSIP, Sunil worked at Google India, where he led Strategic Partner Development, Developer Relations and Outreach Programs for Emerging Markets in India. He was instrumental in rolling out several highly successful mentorship programs, including “Launchpad” for early stage startups and “Google Accelerator” for mid-stage startups. Sunil also set up the Google Sandhill program in India, parntering with leading venture capital firms to work closely with high-potental startups and provide early access to technology, business connects and global insights.

In 2006, Sunil was part of the early team that established Symbian in India and later headed to Nokia Developer ecosystem. For these efforts Sunil was awareded the NASSCOM Product Ecosystem Enabler of the Year in 2009