Former Times Internet* CEO, Rishi Khiani has launched Ant Farm, an innovation sandbox that aims to ideate, build, and operate new companies by getting people across different areas of expertise, on board. The development was first reported by Techcircle. Khiani did not answer our calls but we'll update this post when we hear from him. According to the company's website it selects ideas, puts together people, technology, strategy, marketing & money to build real companies. The site also mentions the names of five companies which Ant Farm's setting up at this point in time - Stylista, Arrive, Social Plug, Fork and Teach Cast. However, there was no additional information about the companies or operational websites. As per Khiani's LinkedIn profile, he's be on board as Managing Director and CEO at Ant Farms. He also clarifies that Ant Farms is not an incubator, an accelerator or a fund and is a team of Blue Sky thinkers, Entrepreneurs and professionals who can build and scale business in today's landscape. The profile mentions that Ant Farm's focus areas are education, travel & leisure, retail, ad-tech and life sciences. Khiani had quit Times Internet, earlier this year. He had joined the company in June 2009, replacing Dinesh Wadhawan. Prior to joining Indiatimes, Khiani was the COO at Web18, which he had joined after he had sold his company UrbanEye to the Network18 group. Upen Rai, who had quit Indiatimes in September, has also joined Khiani's new venture, and according to his LinkedIn profile, he'd be serving as COO and Executive Director. *Disclosure: Times Internet…
