Newal’s international experience, including launching Techstars in Bangalore and investing and supporting founders across North America and Asia, gives him the experience, perspective and insights that will help C100’s global growth ambitions.

Newal joins the C100 from MaRS Discovery District, where he led the Ecosystem and Capital team, supporting ventures in Canada’s Health Sciences, Cleantech, and Enterprise Software sectors. Prior to MaRS, Newal led the expansion of Techstars into India, where he served as Managing Director and led the launch of the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator, which went on to become one of the most active seed acceleration programs in South Asia. 

Newal possesses deep empathy for entrepreneurs having been a former founder himself as the Co-Founder of Jigsee, a venture-backed mobile video startup that became a market leader in South Asia before being sold in 2013. He stems from a background in online advertising, leading business development teams at DoubleClick, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

Having grown up in Canada and worked in the Valley, Afraj is a former venture-backed founder, early-stage investor, and seasoned operator passionate about community building and uniquely positioned to help build out the impact of the C100 community.

He was previously a Partner at On Deck. He helped build and lead On Deck Scale, a global community of 300+ scaling CEOs representing 31 countries, 15 unicorns, and $10B in collective capital raised from many of the world’s top investors. Afraj invested in and supported dozens of founders backed by On Deck’s $100M accelerator fund.

Before On Deck, Afraj was a Director at RBC’s ventures arm and a venture-backed founder of Drop Mobility, one of the first micro-mobility companies in North America. Afraj started his career at Google and Georgian Partners-backed Polar.

"I am excited to help C100 achieve its mission and create a lasting impact for those we serve."

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Marie has worked in communications for many years, where she’s developed a strong belief in how integrated and strategic communications planning can drive business objectives, balancing the building of trust with protecting the brand.  

Her passion for storytelling took her to over 15 developing countries while working for a global humanitarian organization, where she was honoured to capture the stories of inspiring entrepreneurs who were intent on making their communities a better place. Most recently she built the communications function at BenchSci, a Toronto biotech working at the intersection of AI technology and biology.

Marie is excited about uncovering and amplifying aspirational stories within this community, using comms strategies to beat the drum for Canada’s startup ecosystem on the world stage.

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Anna joins the C100 as a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP). Anna has an undergraduate degree from Western University's Media, Information and Technoculture Program and a post-graduate certificate from Humber College in Public Relations. Anna began her career in public relations, but was quickly drawn to the fast pace and irreplaceable impact of events and experiential marketing. She has extensive experience servicing a wide variety of industries including retail, government, post-secondary, healthcare and more. Anna would love to connect with you about your experience with the C100, a great book that you're reading or your favourite new restaurants.

Vishal joins the C100 with a rich and diverse startup experience. He’s been a founder, an early employee at a startup, managed due diligence and investment efforts for angel groups, and worked at multiple innovation spaces in the Toronto-Waterloo region, most notable one being OneEleven. During his time there, he led efforts in launching, delivering and managing bespoke programs to help founders build capacity in their talent and ensure that managers and rising leaders grow as fast as their companies scale. As a seasoned veteran in the ecosystem, he also brings in a vast and inclusive network of stakeholders including founders, mentors and venture capitalists.

Vishal completed his Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) at the University of Waterloo and has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from India. Outside of work, he enjoys listening to podcasts on philosophy and emerging tech, championing the Raptors winning culture, playing tennis and trying out home-made recipes.