Debu Purkayastha

Debu Purkayastha is currently Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at Octopus Ventures, a premier European venture capital firm. Prior to Octopus, till early 2014, Debu spent 6 years at Google. Debu was Principal - New Business Development at Google with a wide product mandate spanning several key strategic focus areas globally. Previously, Debu was Google's Principal - Corporate Development spearheading its global M&A and Investment efforts including the acquisition of ITA Software (travel search), DailyDeal.de (offers), Gizmo5 (VoIP), Phonetic Arts (text to speech), Green Parrot Pictures (video image processing), Zynamics (security software) amongst several others. Debu is also a founding member of Google “Campus”, a seven-storey co-working space for startups in East London’s Tech City. Debu sits on the Board of MercyCorps (NGO), Advisory Board of Sadara Ventures (VC Fund) & previously used to sit on the Boards of Fon (wireless) & Mobile Planet (mobile apps). Prior to Google, Debu headed Sabre's Corporate Development/M&A team in EMEA & in a past life was a Telecoms/Media/Technology M&A Banker with Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in Wall Street, Silicon Valley & London. Debu has a MBA from London Business School & is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Debu spends a fair bit of his personal time working with leading NGOs & governmental institutions in several politically sensitive areas including Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir etc. focusing on economic development initiatives. A certified cricket nut & film fanatic, Debu is also passionate about white-water rafting & hiking.