Balaji Telefilms ropes in Abhishek Kumar as Group CEO

Balaji Telefilms has appointed Abhishek Kumar as the group chief executive officer with immediate effect. He will be responsible for the overall growth of the group.
He will fill in the position vacated by Nachiket Pantvaidya, who left the organisation in May this year.

Kumar comes with over 20+ years of experience in business strategy, M&A, operations and investing in technology and media.

Prior to Balaji, Kumar was serving as COO and general partner at Jupiter Capital, one of the oldest homegrown private equity funds in India, overseeing the new funds of the group.

“We are pleased to have Abhishek as Group CEO and are confident that he is the right person to lead Balaji to the next stage of growth and value creation,” said Shobha Kapoor, managing director, Balaji Telefilms. “He is a seasoned leader with a stellar leadership reputation. The Indian media sector is undergoing massive change which also creates enormous opportunities for us at Balaji, and Abhishek will lead the efforts with the rest of the team, to seize these opportunities and create value for all our stakeholders.”

“I am of the view that content will continue to remain a key and exciting space irrespective of the platform and value being attributed to creators of content. Hence, at Balaji, I believe that I can add significant value through my experience in business strategy, M&A, operations and investing in technology and media,” Kumar said.

Before Jupiter Capital, he was running a venture capital network at Rainforest Venture Network as managing partner and was also an advisor and partner to multiple family offices for technology and consumer investments.

He also led the strategy for scale and growth for Snapdeal.com, executing 20+ M&As, investments and joint ventures across logistics, technology and retail.

He has also led investments in fintech, consumer internet, core technology platforms for digital commerce, ad-tech and e-commerce enablers and has launched three television channels and multiple digital properties.

He began his career as a Journalist for NDTV, thereafter joined Network18 Media, as VP for new ventures and TV18 Broadcast.