Rishi Roongta

Rishi Roongta is the Founder and Global Head of the Venture Ecosystem and serves as a Senior Innovation Leader. Rishi holds more than 20 years of experience across Consulting, Business Building, Business Development, Venture Capital/Corporate Venture Capital and accelerating the adoption of AI. 

As founder of the Venture Ecosystem (VE) , Rishi supports clients on building both their innovation and ecosystem capabilities. Venture Ecosystem has built a global network of startups, venture capitalists, major tech players and innovation leaders. The VE team works directly with executive teams to create meaningful connections and serve as the bridge into the the startup and venture ecosystem. 

In addition to working closely at the intersection of startups and corporations, he works closely with clients on their innovation efforts from setting up innovation strategy and operating models, to helping clients launch new businesses / products and leveraging the latest in AI. 

He is a seasoned seed, A and B round investor with a broad network spanning San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. He has invested across next-gen CPG brands, consumer mobile apps, influencer marketing, eCommerce, healthtech and enterprise SaaS. Rishi has also founded multiple early-stage startups in retail and real estate, as well as his own startup studio to prototype and test new concepts.

Rishi has also done nonprofit work in tandem with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and Imagine1day, which aims to ensure every child in Ethiopia receives a quality education. He also launched Entrepreneur Impact Day, which brings together premiere startups and nonprofits to tackle pressing social challenges.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. You can find him trying to get a game of basketball in while chasing his 3 young kids.