The science of business

Anil Achyuta (MBA ’13) moved to the United States over 20 years ago with $200 in his pocket and $2,000 in debt.

Now, Achyuta is a Partner at Energy Impact Partners, a global investment firm with $5 billion in assets under management. Through the firm’s frontier strategy, Achyuta spearheads global investments in early-stage deep tech startups.

For Achyuta, earning an MBA at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business after earning his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Northeastern University helped him bridge his technical background with the business acumen needed to launch a successful career in venture capital.  

From engineering to venture capital

Before exploring a career in venture capital, Achyuta built a career in chemical and biomedical engineering with a focus on neurotechnology, bioelectronics and medical devices across Draper, Johnson & Johnson, and L’Oreal

As a Ph.D. student, Achyuta’s doctoral thesis focused on engineering tiny implants that help paralyzed patients. Across his experience, he has authored over 15 peer-reviewed journal publications and is a named inventor on five U.S. patents.

But when Achyuta began exploring a career in venture capital, his engineering experience seemed out of place.

“I was the weird guy with the weird science background,” he explained.

His experience differed from the more traditional paths into venture capital, which often includes roles in investment banking or consulting.

“I wanted to be at the right place at the right time, and the only thing that made sense to me was being a venture capitalist,” he said. “Nobody really believed that I could actually evaluate businesses and see the potential.”

So, Achyuta applied to an MBA program to prove he could “also be in the business world and speak the language.”

Bridging science and business at UF

When it came time to explore business school options, Achyuta looked for the best in the state of Florida. That was the Warrington College of Business at UF, which has consistently ranked highly among publics and in the U.S.

One professor particularly had a profound impact on Achyuta’s MBA experience: Joseph W. Alba, James W. Walter Eminent Scholar Chair and Distinguished Professor.

“I will remember for the rest of my life, he was the best professor single handedly,” Achyuta said. “The energy, the decisiveness, the critical thinking acumen that he imbued upon me was so strong.”

Alba changed Achyuta’s perspective on business through marketing.

“He really taught me the psychology,” he said. “Because marketing is all about psychology.”

Even now, Achyuta keeps his textbook from one of Alba’s marketing classes on his desk. 

Aside from his classroom experience, Achyuta also felt like he was able to grow professionally alongside his cohort, many of whom were working professionals. 

“I felt that the peer learning was very strong,” he explained. “I learned a lot from my classmates because they were all experienced people.”

Investing in emerging technologies

While pursuing his MBA, Achyuta worked at GSK before going on to hold leadership roles at other Fortune 500 companies, including L’Oréal and Johnson & Johnson.

But even at large companies, Achyuta still had a passion for the entrepreneurial side of business.  

“In every large company I worked in, I’ve always worked in a pocket where they behave like a startup,” he explained.

That entrepreneurial environment suited Achyuta’s willingness to challenge the standard.

“I’ve learned that I’m too disruptive for large companies. I ask too many questions, I break rules, and I don’t follow the chain of command.”

Achyuta’s “superpower” is that he doesn’t hold back, a power he brought to the table when co-founding TDK Ventures, a corporate venture capital firm investing globally in early-stage tech startups.

There, he invested in companies developing technologies across areas including medical devices, advanced manufacturing, energy and technology.

Among TDK Ventures’ most notable investments is Groq, a company Achyuta said was still small when his firm invested. In 2025, Groq landed a $20 billion non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia.

But for Achyuta, venture capital is about more than identifying a promising investment. It’s about joining entrepreneurs on a journey to build “lasting companies.”

Although it can be filled with “massive ups and massive downs,” Achyuta explained. “When you get it right, sometimes you make a dent on the world.”

Successful companies can create jobs, generate wealth and change the trajectory of the people who build them.

“You create generational wealth,” he said.

Witnessing that transformation over the span of ten years is “like magic” to him. 

A scientist’s perspective on venture capital

“I have [done] more than I thought I could in the last 20 years,” Achyuta said.

Though his career has moved from the laboratory to venture capital, Achyuta still thinks and behaves like a scientist.

“We think about these startup ideas like we used to do in graduate school,” Achyuta reminisced. “We see [someone] working in a lab, doing some basic research, and when it aptly meets the right business model, suddenly it makes it to popular consciousness.”

That unique perspective has shaped how Achyuta views and approaches venture capital, beyond the financial side.

“It’s about economic and societal impact,” he said. “That economic impact almost always directly converts into social impact.”

Since pursuing a career in venture capital, he has invested in emerging technology companies and served across dozens of startup boards. In 2021, he was recognized as the No. 2 Rising Star out of 20,000 venture managers for his success in the field.

For those interested in becoming a venture capitalist, Achyuta’s advice is to step into a founder’s shoes.

“Go work at a startup. Go suffer. Go through the hard things that people go through and understand what it is to run a startup,” he said. “If you don’t go through the journey of starting from nothing to something, it is very difficult to understand how to invest and create a lasting impact.”