Avnish Bajaj

Managing Director, Matrix Partners

As a result, Baazee grew into a healthy business in spite of the turbulent market, and ultimately sold to eBay in 2004 for $55 million. Bajaj continued to run eBay India for a year and a half. The lessons he took from running a business in a rapidly changing and challenging environment have proven to be invaluable. Bajaj’s additional experiences at Apple and eBay have given him a deep appreciation for the myriad of issues a leader has to deal with in creating and running successful enterprises.

Bajaj attended the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where he graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. He then completed a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the U.S. and joined Apple Computer as a Software Engineer. During his three and-a-half years at Apple (during which time the company had four CEOs), Bajaj developed an interest in management and left Apple to complete a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. While at Harvard, Bajaj interned with McKinsey and Co.

After graduating from Harvard, Bajaj joined Goldman Sachs in their investment banking team during the dot com bubble days where he was exposed to a number of compelling business ideas that ultimately led to the formation of Baazee.

Bajaj co–founded Matrix India in 2006 and is looking to invest in companies run by great leaders who are focused on capitalizing on the exponential growth rates of the domestic Indian market.