Sergey and Anand were friends and had the same thesis supervisor. In 1998, Sergey and Larry offered to sell Google for just $1 million to Venky and Anand. Unfortunately, the Indian duo did not have the financial means to buy Google at the time. Later, Junglee was acquired by Amazon for $250 million in 1998. Their amazing story was first shared on LinkedIn by then went viral on Twitter.

The following year, Google gained popularity. Venky and Anand approached Jeff Bezos and convinced him to acquire Google for $300 million. They travel to Silicon Valley to meet Larry and Sergey but the founders of Google disagree. Larry and Sergey demanded a $1 billion ($1 billion) prize for Google and the deal fell through. Today, after 25 years, the value of Google has exceeded $1.5 trillion.

Despite acquiring Junglee, Venky and Anand didn’t stop there. In 2002, they formed a venture capital fund and successfully facilitated the acquisition of several portfolio companies. They also manufacture and sell Kosmix for $300 million to Walmart. In 2015, they launched another fund and have since funded several Indian startups.

Meet these two guys from Chennai who almost bought Google, not once but twice.

Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman graduated from IIT-M and attended Stanford University 30 years ago. Their friendship started when Venky took Anand shopping in his car. They co-founded… pic.twitter.com/DrslOolTTO

— Amit Jaiswal (@TheAmitJaiswal) July 15, 2023

Who is Venky Harinarayan?

Venky Harinarayan obtained his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1988 and later obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford, USA. Venky is an investor, entrepreneur, and leader in search and e-commerce. He is co-founder of Cambrian Ventures and Kosmix. He also co-founded Junglee Corp., which pioneered comparison shopping on the Internet. Junglee was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. in 1998. Venky is an angel investor active in India and Silicon Valley. He is one of less than 5 angel investors on Facebook. He is also a board member of Bangalore-based TutorVista, which was acquired by Person LLC in 2001.

Who is Anand Rajaraman?

Dr. Anand Rajaraman earned his B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1993 and later obtained his MSc and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA. Anand is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and academic. He is co-founder of Cambrian Ventures, a venture capital firm. His investments include Facebook, Aster Data Systems, Neoteris, India Infoline, YouSendIT and several others. Anand is the co-founder and CTO of Junglee Corp., and played a key role in the development of Junglee’s award-winning virtual database technology. Later, when Junglee was acquired by Amazon.com, Anand helped transform Amazon.com from a retailer to a retail platform.