Rishap “Rish” Malhotra joined DroneUp in 2022 as the Senior Vice President for Strategy and Corporate Development.  DroneUp is a leading autonomous drone delivery platform and drone services provider, recently named in Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech. Rish is responsible for developing the company’s growth strategy across autonomous last mile delivery and drone enabled services. He also leads all inorganic growth efforts including global acquisitions, ecosystem ventures and investments.

Before joining DroneUp, Rish was the CEO of a direct to consumer ecommerce startup where he was responsible for accelerating growth and providing strategic, financial and operational leadership.  Prior to that, he held a breadth of leadership positions in corporate development and operations at global advertising agencies J. Walter Thompson (JWT) and Saatchi & Saatchi.  Rish’s transaction experience includes acquisitions, minority investments, joint ventures and partnerships.  He has worked across media, retail, technology services, digital marketing, data and analytics industries and successfully led transactions in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and LATAM.

He grew up in New Delhi, India and started his career as a journalist and TV producer with CNBC-India. Rish’s community work is focused on helping entrepreneurs in Hampton Roads and currently serves on the board for 757 Angels, 757 Collab and Resilience Innovation Fund. He is also a board advisor and observer to several startups in e-commerce, martech and family tech.