Avinav Nigam

Founder & CEO

2023 - Current

TERN is reimagining the $8.5 Trillion category of global recruitment via an AI-driven Careers Marketplace. We will help the ethical and safe migration of 1M top workers to severe shortage markets of Europe, US, UAE/KSA and Japan. TERN has access to a verified and growing healthcare pool of 1.5M doctors, nurses, technical skilled workers from the world’s leading labour market - India. TERN is a proud partner of the Govt of India's NSDC framework in making India the Skill Capital of the world. Present in London, Berlin, Dubai, Jordan, Morocco, Delhi and Bangalore. Backed by some of the world’s leading VCs and Funds, who have previously backed companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Spotify, Airbnb etc.

Advisor, Global Operations

2024

NSDC works under the aegis of Ministry of Skills Development, Govt of India, to achieving PM Modi's mission of making India the Skills Capital of the World. Advising on NSDC's global operations and in creating talent highways for a million Indians via sustainable, ethical and legal immigration of skilled professionals from India to global economies within multiple categories.

Advisory Board

2024

Helping a billion Indians achieve language literacy by subtitles in mass consumed media

Investor

2021

Investor in passionate founders building category disrupting companies such as LunarX, 5Mins.ai, Heading Health, Lilo Homes, Omah, Breathe Wellbeing

Board Member

2022 - 2023

Cofounder & COO

2018 - 2023

Solving the fundamental human need of shelter, by bringing the residential category into the 21st century with a modern rental living experience. Backed by leading global VCs, and partnering with Fortune 100 companies as clients. Raised over $100m in venture funding, $2.5Bn in institutional capital commitments. Establishing a market leader in the largest asset class of Single unit residential that is worth $50 trillion in Europe & €300Tn globally.

Vice President, Disney+ Hotstar

2017 - 2018

Building the world’s favorite content streaming platform. Led brand marketing and consumer growth. - Going strong at 100m+ monthly Active Users. - Broke the world record for live concurrent views with 8m+ consumers tuned in during cricket’s IPL 2017.

Vice President - Head of Marketing

2015 - 2016

Growing south Asia's largest online payments business, processing over $15Bn GTV.

VP - Head of Business

2015 - 2016

Solving the payments collection problem for India's longtail 500,000 SMEs

Consumer

2013 - 2015

Building the world’s largest automotive business, valued at $3.3Bn with $1.3Bn raised from the likes of Sequoia, SoftBank, Tencent. Worked with the Founders, to scale the business to $500m revenue rate. Cars24 has a stellar team of 4000 employees over 5 countries. - Built the consumer brand running the following teams : digital & offline marketing, growth marketing, design & creative, media buying, content/SEO strategy, PR, social media, retail experience and instore branding. - Scaled the business keeping a low acquisition cost <$100 seeing a 10X growth - Hired and managed a stellar team of 30 people in all aspects of marketing & growth - Enabled the rapid expansion from 2 to 55 geographies.

Regional Brand Leader, Ariel

2013 - 2013

Spearheading the responsibility of taking the detergent brand ‘ARIEL’ to new success heights, I led cross-functional teams across marketing, sales, finance and supply chain spectrums in the design of insightful marketing campaigns; simultaneously working with the R&D teams to understand technical aspects of how the product works, in order to find unique cleaning properties that grab customer attention. Key Achievements: - Led Ariel to #1 brand in Japan by designing a series of initiatives to win on the crucial ‘anti-bac’ cleaning equity, amidst tough competition from 4 other market launches. - Executed the biggest historical launch in APAC worth $40Mn incremental sales of new laundry additive. - Managed top global creative/media/research agencies (such as GREY, Saatchi, Mediacom, TNS, Milward Brown) to design marketing plans, launch campaigns, track brand and take corrective measures. - Recipient team for the “Best Brand Building” Award by the Asia President Japan among >150 brand-country nominees.

Brand Manager, Japan & Korea (Fabric Softeners)

2009 - 2013

Transferred from the engineering to the marketing department by the VP with the task to revitalise the ‘Lenor’ business, I identified key issues impacting the brand growth, thereafter leading cross-functional teams to execute on holistic campaigns/strategic initiatives every quarter. Constantly tracking and reapplying learning from consumer feedbacks & insights to achieve brand penetration, I liaised with other departments such as R&D to design new products/features, sales to define merchandising strategy, finance to create profit & investment strategies and supply chain to build-up planning. Key Achievements: - Launched “Pepe” Fabric Softener additives that delivered incremental of 35$Mn sales (23$Mn sales incremental at 65% gross margin), the biggest historical launch in Asia Fabric softeners. - Worked closely with R&D to identify fabric softener water-repelling properties, developing the idea of “Quick dry for clothes - growing business by 20%, and being reapplied to several global markets like Philippines & Latin America. - Increased pace of launches from 2/year to 1/quarter, with the same budget to accelerate growth from a 3-year decline of -20% to +40% growth over next 4 years, making ‘Lenor’ #1 Fabric softener brand crossing $350M sales first time ever. - Vigilantly guided the crisis team to recover 7% to 22% market share of a $90M business in Korea. (retailers delisted us). - Awarded with 100 company shares in recognition of outstanding performance over a minimum of 3 years - The highest form of accolade presented to only 2% of the total global workforce. - Recipient of the Asia Presidents award for “Best Brand Building” (Lenor Japan) and “Best TV Marketing Campaigns” (Downy-Lenor JP KR) among >150 marketing campaigns in Asia Pacific by consumer insight led ideas. - Received Power of You GOLD in 2011 for contributions in Japan Fabric & Home Care Business Unit (from 300 managers).

Engineering & Supply Chain Lead

2007 - 2009

Responsible for multiple engineering projects, I led a team of 5 Japanese line technicians over a year to launch a line involving German KRONES filler, Italian Ronchi capper and Japanese Kubota palletizer/rails. Additionally worked on process reliability project for a fully automated dishwasher packing line stuck at 60% reliability with a throughput of 400 bottles/min (highest in Asia at the time; meaning an absolute 10% PR incremental equals 1 million extra bottles monthly). Key Achievements: - Used low-cost technology options to deliver the start-up project with an under-investment of $7M, preceding delivery time by 3 months. - Improved Process Reliability from 60% to 80% through a series of line tests e.g. removing ‘bottle stuck on rails’ phenomenon by dry lubrication method and mis-capping issue. - Received the ‘Power of You GOLD’ for two consecutive years (2008 -2009) for my contributions within Japan Fabric & Home Care Business Unit (from amongst 300 managers) with the highest rating of 1 (Outstanding).