Religion Parsi, Zoroastrian Name Villoo Morawala-Patell | Residence Bengaluru | |
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Occupation Chairperson of Avesthagen | ||
Education Louis Pasteur University | ||
Dr. Villoo Morawala-Patell is the founder and current Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Biotechnology company Avesthagen. She obtained her Master of science degree from the University of Mumbai in Medical Biochemistry and her PhD from Institut de Biologie Moleculaire des Plantes (IBMP-CNRS), University of Strasbourg, France. Prior to her Ph.D., Dr. Patell worked as a Research Associate at ICRISAT (International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics. (ICRISAT) for 10 years. After her Ph.D. she returned to India and then followed it up with post-doctoral work at the [[University of Ghent as a Rockefeller Fellow)] Was a Visiting Scientist and Rockefeller Fellow at NCBS-TIFR and Professor Emeritus at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore before Founding the company Avesthagen Limited in 1998 with a long term, strategic model to change the world and make it a better place. The company based on the Convergence of Food, Pharma and Population Genetics leading to Predictive Preventive Personalized Healthcare and Food Security. Avesthagen in the last 19 years became a prolific driver of Innovation and product Development, raised 70 million USD in Venture and Strategic global funding. The company is today poised to deliver the outcome of its research through its 5 subsidiaries, Avesta Nordic Research Pvt. Ltd, Avesta Good Earth Foods Pvt. Ltd, AQUAS Pvt. Ltd, AVA Seeds Pvt. Ltd and The Avestagenome Project International Pvt. Ltd. The company is raising funds currently to the tune of 150 Crores. The Investors in Avesthagen Limited are ICICI Ventures, Fidelity (FID Funds Mauritius), New York Life, GLG Partners, Citibank, TATA Industries, Godrej Industries, CIPLA, Danone, France, Limagrain, France, Institut Merieux, France.