Entrepreneur India – July 2019

38 l ENTREPRENEUR l JULY 2019

SHREYAS SHIBULAL, Founder & Director, Micelio

ARUN CHITTILAPPILLY, Managing Director, Wonderla Holidays

B

engaluru-

based Shreyas

Shibulal,

son of Infosys co-

founder SD Shibulal,

inherited a penchant

for engineering

from his father. The

26-year-old says, “I

like working with

start-ups, great

minds and great

ideas.”

For Shibulal, who

pursued Bachelors

in Computer Science

from Haverford

College in USA

and a Masters

specializing in

Embedded Systems

from the University

of Pennsylvania,

coming back to

India had always

been the plan. After

returning to India

in 2016, he worked

as a Data Scientist

in Bengaluru. But,

the desire to make a

sustainable impact

through innovation

on the society

remained.

He says, “Oil is

one of India’s largest

import. Today,

with the increasing

number of nuclear

families, there is an

increasing demand

for automobiles. So

venturing into the

Electric Vehicle (EV)

space appeared a

natural fit.”

Thus, in January

2019, he launched

Micelio - a Rs

140-crore seed-

based fund for

start-ups. Shibulal

says, “The fund shall

cater to start-ups

operating across

the value chain in

the EV space.” The

corpus, with a ticket

size of $100,000

to 1 million per

start-up, would

also be utilized in

establishing a Design

and Discovery

Studio to act as a

co-working and an

engineering space for

ventures in the EV

arena.

“My father

advised me to not get

stuck in thinking too

much,” he confides.

THE ELECTRIC

VEHICLE MOBILIZER

THE WONDERMAN

“I

want

to take

Wonderla

Amusement Parks

to all the major

cities in India”,

discloses Arun

K Chittilappilly.

Chittilappilly

is the son of

Kochouseph

Chittilappilly,

Founder and

Chairman of the

Rs 1,800-crore

V-Guard

Industries, a

voltage stabiliser

manufacturing

company.

On being asked

why he did not

join V-Guard,

Chittilappilly says,

“I didn’t want

to work directly

under my father.

Our working styles

are different,”

he smiles. While

his father is

more regimental,

Chittilappilly is

more of a free

thinker.

Chittilappilly

Sr had opened an

amusement park

named Veegaland

in Kochi in 2000.

When Arun came

back to India

after completing

his Masters

in Industrial

Engineering

from Swinburne

University (IRIS),

Melbourne,

he could have

either joined the

already flourishing

V-Guard or

Veegaland.

“V-guard

was already a

well established

company and

somehow I wasn’t

drawn to it,” he

admits. He was

thrilled to “take

a small concept

of Veegaland

and make it

into Wonderla”

a favourite in

amusement parks

in South India.

From a Veegaland

in Kochi, now

there are three

amusement

parks. Wonderla

Holidays operates

in Kochi,

Bengaluru and

Hyderabad, with a

fourth one coming

up in Chennai.

Chittilappilly

shares that

“patience,

perseverance, will,

grit, compassion

and fairness” are

a few takeaways

from his father.

Meeting new

people, reading,

travelling, mining

the web and

visiting new

amusement parks

across the world

are ways through

which Arun keeps

generating new

ideas.

STUDIO MICELIO

The Design & Discovery

Studio, expected to

be operational by mid-

2019, would provide

infrastructure support

to not only its portfolio

companies but also any

initiative operating in

the EV domain.

“I didn’t want

to work directly

under my

father. Our

working styles

are different”