Anup Kumar Agarwal
South Asia Fintech Lead,
IFC/World Bank Group
Anup Kumar Agarwal
South Asia Fintech Lead,IFC/World Bank Group
Anup Kumar Agarwal currently leads fintech investments for IFC in South Asia across payments, lending, insurtech, wealthtech, etc sub-verticals. In the past, he has led several equity and debt investment transactions for IFC in South Asia, East Asia and Africa across the financial services space, including banks, NBFCs, microfinance, housing finance, broking, PE/VC fund, etc. He has successfully managed exits (including through IPOs) and has experienced full investment cycle.
Prior to joining IFC, Anup worked as Group Head Credit and Deputy General Manager in ICICI Bank and as Assistant General Manager with ICRA Limited.
Anup is a Chartered Accountant (Rank Holder), additionally qualified as a CFA (ICFAI), ICWA, and CS with over 25+ years of experience in equity investing, lending, portfolio management, credit rating, and consulting.
Alka Goel
Founder,
Alkemi Growth Capital LLP
Alka Goel
Founder,Alkemi Growth Capital LLP
Alka Goel is the Founder of Alkemi Growth Capital LLP, an early stage healthcare and consumer wellness fund. She has led investment in multiple sub-sectors over the last 4 years. Prior to that, Alka was a Partner in McKinsey & Co., New York office, where she primarily served clients in the life science and private equity industry.
At McKinsey, she served more than 350 Clients across all major geographies. She completed her business school from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 2000 and Bachelor of Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.
Alpesh Shah
Managing Director & Senior Partner,
BCG
Alpesh Shah
Managing Director & Senior Partner,BCG
Alpesh Shah leads Boston Consulting Group's India office. He has extensive experience in the insurance, financial services, telecommunications, and technology sectors in Asia, specifically India.
Across the Asia Pacific region, Alpesh has assisted a variety of banks, finance and insurance companies, and telcos on topics including segment-specific strategy development, portfolio analysis, new business launch, breakout growth strategy development, pricing, channel effectiveness, operational efficiency enhancement, cost management and reduction, post-merger integration, business divestiture, and implementation support.
Alpesh is the author of many reports on topics including insurance, payments, digital lending, and the India internet economy. He is also a member of the FICCI Insurance Committee and the CII Asset Management Committee in India
Prior to joining BCG in 2000, he was associated with Booz Allen & Hamilton.
Anita George
Global Sustainable Investment Professional
Anita George
Global Sustainable Investment Professional
Anita has been an investor backing early trends with winning partners and established a distinguished track record in sustainable investments across the globe. In her last five and a half years with CDPQ, she established CDPQ’s office in India and soon after became Executive Vice President and Head of Emerging Markets at CDPQ. Her final post at CDPQ was as Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of CDPQ Global covering all geographies outside of Canada, supporting investments in renewable energy, highways, telecom, and venture fund investments in Emerging Markets. Anita spent 22 years at the World Bank Group with 14 of those years with the IFC in Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Municipal Finance and initiated the creation of IFC’s Venture group. Her various roles have led her to work in several regions of the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Ms. George holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Smith College, in Massachusetts, and a Masters in Economics and an MBA in Finance from Boston University.
Anju Srivastava
Founder & CEO,
Wingreens Farms
Anju Srivastava
Founder & CEO,Wingreens Farms
Anju is a Xavier’s Institute of Mass Comm alumni. She spent over 25 years in the advertising profession and built a reputation as one of the most respected “strategic” Creative Directors. She decided to apply her skills to new challenges and started out on her own to build a social enterprise that married her passion for contributing to society with her love for food. She started with farming and then created the fresh dip category in India by skilling and empowering underprivileged women. She continues to apply “out of the box” thinking and has extended the Wingreens brand into sauces, mayo, baked chips, pasta, bakery mixes, herbs and seasonings, spice mixes, etc by developing the most delicious products that resonate with the evolving new age Indian consumer.
Wingreens acquired Raw Pressery marking its entry into better-for-you beverages. Wingreens World today also includes a millet muesli brand Monsoon Harvest, a gourmet sauces brand Saucery and an Indian local snack brand Postcard. She has established an innovative and inclusive business model at Wingreens World that continuously challenges the status quo.
Anshul Jain
Managing Director,
Lighthouse Funds
Anshul Jain
Managing Director,Lighthouse Funds
Anshul is a Managing Director and co-leads the investment team at Lighthouse Funds. She serves on the board of Duroflex. She previously led consumer sector coverage at ICICI Securities in Investment banking team
Apoorva Sharma
Partner,
Stride Ventures
Apoorva Sharma
Partner,Stride Ventures
Apoorva Sharma is a partner at Stride Ventures. Her role at the fund includes end-to-end deal management from deal sourcing to monitoring, handling strategic partnerships with VCs, banks and other institutions, and investor relations. As a principal in the first fund, Apoorva led deals covering sectors like FinTech, Consumer, B2B commerce and Healthtech.
She brings in over 9 years of experience in the lending ecosystem across MNC and SME clients. She started her career with HSBC in their investment banking division, where she was involved in debt capital markets and was part of successful bond issuances. Post HSBC, she worked with Xander Finance, a sector agnostic NBFC, where she was involved in deal sourcing, underwriting and structuring, across investments in real estate, FMCG, manufacturing and education.
Apoorva has completed her post-graduation in management from Indian Institute of Management Shillong and is a CFA charterholder.
Aseem Dhru
Managing Director & CEO,
SBFC Finance Ltd
Aseem Dhru
Managing Director & CEO,SBFC Finance Ltd
Aseem Dhru is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Gujarat University. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has been certified by the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. He has over 25 years of experience in the banking industry and has been associated with our Company since September 28, 2017. Prior to joining our Company, he was associated with HDFC Bank Limited as a group head – business banking, working capital & retail agri business, HDFC Securities Limited as managing director and chief executive officer and was a director on the board of HDB Financial Services Limited.
Ashley Menezes
COO & Partner,
ChrysCapital Advisors LLP
Ashley Menezes
COO & Partner,ChrysCapital Advisors LLP
Mr. Menezes is the COO and a Partner at ChrysCapital and has been with the firm for 23 years. He is a member of the advisory committee and is responsible for diligence, regulatory/industry relationships, legal, compliance and operations. Mr. Menezes is a private equity veteran and has served on the board of the Indian private equity association for almost eight years, and is the current vice-chairman. He has also served as a member of the CII National Committee of private equity and other industry bodies.
Prior to ChrysCapital, Mr. Menezes was with KPMG, in its information technology and U.S. GAAP practices,
where, among other things, he was involved in the ADR issues and NYSE/NASDAQ listings of several leading Indian companies. Mr. Menezes is a rank-holding Chartered Accountant and received a Bachelor’s degree in commerce from Mumbai University.
Dhiraj Poddar
Managing Director & Country Head,
TA Associates
Dhiraj Poddar
Managing Director & Country Head,TA Associates
Dhiraj heads the Indian operations of TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd., focusing on investments in companies in India and other emerging markets.
Dhiraj has advised on over 11 investments across financial services, technology, business services and manufacturing. He joined TA in 2010 and has more than 15 years of experience in the private equity industry.
Among others, he serves on the Board of Directors of Indiaideas.com (BillDesk), Atria Convergence Technology (ACT), Prudent Corporate Advisory, Indira IVF Hospital and Accion Labs. Prior to Joining TA in 2010, he worked at Standard Chartered Private Equity where he invested across several sectors in India.
TA Associates has recently seen the listing of two of its portfolio companies – Tega Industries and Rategain. In addition to these, two of their investee companies have filed for an IPO.
He received a degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an MBA Degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Dhruv Shah
Partner,
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Dhruv Shah
Partner,Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Dhruv is based in Mumbai and is a core member of BCG’s Principal Investors and Private Equity practice in India.
He is experienced in transaction support on both buy-side working close with private equity investors as well as sell-side. He also has significant experience in the financial services domain. He received his MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Gautam Mago
Founder & General Partner,
A91 Partners
Gautam Mago
Founder & General Partner,A91 Partners
Gautam is a founder and General Partner at A91 Partners. Previously, Gautam was a Managing Director at Sequoia Capital India and also worked at McKinsey & Company. He is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta and the University of Mumbai. He currently serves on the boards of Exotel, Videoverse and Inshorts and has previously served on the boards of a number of companies including Oyo Rooms, Rupeek, Star Health Insurance, Capitalfloat and Urbanladder.
Gurnoor Kaur
Vice President,
TA
Gurnoor Kaur
Vice President,TA
Gurnoor focuses on investments in business services companies in India.
Experience
- Fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi
Prior to TA
- Rothschild & Co. – Investment Banking Division, Telecom, Energy, Consumer and Healthcare (Mumbai)
- JP Morgan – Investment Banking Division, Oil and Gas (London/Mumbai)
Education
- IIM Kozhikode – MBA
- Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University – B.Com., Honors
Kanchan Samtani
Managing Director & Senior Partner,
India Leader – Principal Investors & Private Equity,
Boston Consulting Group
Kanchan Samtani
Managing Director & Senior Partner,India Leader – Principal Investors & Private Equity,
Boston Consulting Group
Kanchan is based in Mumbai and serves as an Executive Committee member for Boston Consulting Group, the firm’s apex decision-making body globally. She leads BCG’s Transactions & Integrations practice in APAC. She has also founded and leads BCG’s Principal Investors and Private Equity practice in India.
Kanchan has more than 20 years’ experience in management consulting primarily across TMT (technology, media & telecom) and private equity. Over the last 5 years, she has worked closely with most leading private equity investors in India, advising them on portfolio strategy, pre-deal diligence etc. She also works extensively with corporates as well as growth stage companies on topics spanning the transaction lifecycle e.g. fund raise / IPO, M&A, post-merger integration and divestitures.
She received her MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Kanika Mayar
Partner, Investment & ESG Officer,
Vertex Ventures
Kanika Mayar
Partner, Investment & ESG Officer,Vertex Ventures
Kanika Mayar joined Vertex Ventures in 2020 and focuses on opportunities in India. Kanika has over 9 years of experience across private equity, asset management and investment banking.
Prior to joining Vertex, Kanika was an Investment Officer with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where she focused on investing in early-stage technology, telecom, renewable energy and infrastructure companies across India and South Asia. Before IFC, Kanika was with Goldman Sachs’s Investment Banking team covering transactions in natural resources in Europe.
Kanika holds a Bachelor in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Kanwaljit Singh
Founder & Managing Partner,
Fireside Ventures
Kanwaljit Singh
Founder & Managing Partner,Fireside Ventures
With a career spanning more than 3 decades in the consumer brand and investing ecosystem, Kanwaljit Singh brings deep expertise in venture investing, strategy and business development, brand building and marketing.
As the Founder and Managing Partner of Fireside Ventures, he has successfully raised three separate funds (AUM US$400Mn) with notable investors include L’Oreal France, Investment Corporation of Dubai; Unilever Ventures, SIDBI (managing Govt of India’s Fund of Fund for startups), HDFC Bank, Waterfield Fund of Funds, etc. Apart from defining the overall contours of the portfolio he mentors entrepreneurs to scale and champions Fireside’s thought leadership. Kanwaljit is on the board of several companies, and at Fireside plays a pivotal role in the growth of brands like Boat, Slurrp Farm, Vahdam Teas, and The Ayurveda Experience etc. Prior to establishing Fireside Ventures, Kanwaljit invested personal capital and provided mentorship support to consumer brands like Licious and Mama Earth (both became Unicorns recently), Paper Boat, Epigamia, Yoga bar, amongst others.
Prior to this, as the co-founder and Senior MD at Helion Ventures (AUM US$600Mn) from 2005 to 2015 he worked closely with business in the consumer and consumer technology space. Some of his notable investments were Qwikcilver, ID Fresh, Simplilearn and Lifecell etc. Prior to Helion, as the Director of The Carlyle Group, India (2001-2005) he led investments in technology ventures. Kanwaljit’s foundational years (1987-2000) were at Hindustan Unilever focussing on sales, marketing and product innovation, along with a 3- year stint at Intel as the General Manager – Marketing overlooking responsibilities in India and the SAARC Countries.
Kanwaljit holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi; and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Punjab University.
Karthik Reddy
Co-founder & Managing Partner,
Blume Ventures
Karthik Reddy
Co-founder & Managing Partner,Blume Ventures
Karthik Reddy is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Blume Ventures, one of India's pre-eminent early-stage venture funds. At over $600 Million in AUM, Blume focuses on Seed to Pre-Series A investments in technology-led innovation and supports its best portfolio companies into growth rounds. Over a decade, Blume has made 150+ investments across 3 funds and is currently investing out of its latest $250 Million Fund IV in 2022
Alongside being a full-time Investor, Karthik also serves as the Chairperson of the Executive Committee at the IVCA (India’s Venture and Alternative Capital Association) - India's apex association for Venture & PE Funds working alongside the Indian Government in policy & regulatory issues concerning Alternative Investment Funds.
At Blume, Karthik has led and/or serves on the boards of some of the leading investments at the firm Unacademy, Grey Orange, Dunzo, Healthifyme, Servify, Small case, IntrCity, Exotel and Webengage amongst other emerging stars.
He previously had stints at American Express Bank, Instinet (under Reuters) and Bennett Coleman (Times Group) which have given him a breadth of experience across the US and India in Financial Markets, Technology and Media.
He is an alumni of IIT-Roorkee, IIM-Bangalore and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ketki Paranjpe
Partner (Investments),
Sixth Sense Ventures
Ketki Paranjpe
Partner (Investments),Sixth Sense Ventures
Ketki Paranjpe is Partner (Investments) as Sixth Sense Ventures. She has 15 years of experience in investment advisory and investment management across Mumbai, London and Singapore. Her last role was as Partner and India lead at L Catterton, world’s largest consumer sector focused private equity fund, where she led investments in notable consumer companies like Fabindia, PVR Cinemas and Jio Platforms Limited. Ketki has witnessed the full cycle from investment to exit in her professional career.
At Sixth Sense she focuses on driving investments in disruptive consumer companies in high potential categories. Her categories of interest include personal care, enablers to consumer companies, and consumer tech plays.
Ketki holds a masters degree in finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science She is a Ratan Tata Grant Scholar and Maharashtra State Merit List Rank Holder.
Ketki enjoys meeting and interacting with exciting companies and her passion for early stage investing drove her to move from private equity to venture capital industry. She is passionate about health and fitness and is an avid reader and spiritual seeker. She loves nature and wild life.
Lavanya Ashok
General Partner,
Trifecta Capital
Lavanya Ashok
General Partner,Trifecta Capital
Lavanya Ashok is a General Partner at Trifecta Capital and joined in 2020 to lead the launch of the firm's growth equity investing business. In the past two years, the firm has set up a $250mm growth equity fund and made investments in ten category leading tech companies. Lavanya has 17 years of investing and investment banking experience. She was previously Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Principal Investing, deploying funds from GS’ balance sheet and USD 8 Bn global private equity fund in India. Earlier in her career, Lavanya also worked at SPO Partners, a value-investing-oriented hedge fund in California managing USD 10 Bn, and Goldman Sachs investment banking in New York.
Lavanya earned a BS in Economics and Finance summa cum laude from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 where she was among the top 1% of students in her graduating class, and an MBA in 2010 from Stanford University where she was a Barrett Fellow and President of the South Asia Students’ Association.
Lavanya is passionate about investing, books, dance, yoga and meditation. When not at work, she can be found outdoors with her husband and twin toddlers.
Manish Kheterpal
Founder & Managing Partner,
WaterBridge Ventures
Manish Kheterpal
Founder & Managing Partner,WaterBridge Ventures
Manish has over 2 decades of experience in venture capital and private equity across India and North America. He has personally led US$ 850 Million of investments in India and across the US-India corridor.
He is currently the Managing Partner of WaterBridge Ventures, a leading early-stage VC firm with $250 Million AUM. His investments at WaterBridge include leading start-ups like Atlan, Bijnis, CityMall, Chalo, DoubtNut, Magicpin, Nymble, PocketPills, and Unacademy. Earlier he has been in senior investment roles at Rho Ventures, Actis Capital and Director for Providence Equity Partners (world’s largest sector focused fund) with a focus on South and SE Asia.
Manish is an active member of entrepreneurship and investing networks such as TiE (Delhi NCR, Bangalore), Stanford Angels and a member of IVCA Venture Council. He graduated with a B.Tech from IIT Delhi in 1996 and an MBA from Stanford University (Graduate School of Business) in 2004.
Manjot Pahwa
Vice President,
Lightspeed
Manjot Pahwa
Vice President,Lightspeed
Manjot’s career path has been a roller coaster ride and she brings deep experience as an operator of over a decade in her approach towards investing. A daughter of immigrants in India and the first girl in her community to have a job, she started her career as an engineer at Google in Silicon Valley.
Spending almost 7 years at Google, she kept on reinventing herself, from scaling services to billions as a Site Reliability Engineer to building infrastructure for consumer applications to heading product for one of the fastest growing open source projects in history. Google was also the place where she first met Hemant, who later on became a partner at Lightspeed.
If Google was about coming of age, starting up was becoming an adult. In 2019, she left her job and the US to come home to build a devtools startup in India. Even before COVID, she believed that world class technology companies can and will be built from India. During this time, she also got to observe Lightspeed more closely from the perspective of a founder and experienced the intense curiosity to get to the truth of the rest of the team.
The tide turned with the onset of COVID and she had to shut down her venture. The biggest lessons during this time were about people and relationships, “I learnt that everything in life is about relationships and people: teams, companies and businesses”. She started partnering with founders in the ecosystem and discovered her love for building and helping other founders and startups grow, working at the cusp of technological revolution. “I developed a deep network within India such that I was aware of most of the startups in OSS, devtools and infrastructure in India”.
This led to the next part of her story, joining Stripe in APAC as a product manager and eventually leading the business for Stripe in India. During this time, she continued her love affair with startups on the side and started dabbling with her first angel checks. By this time, she had known the Lightspeed team for over 5 years. “The Lightspeed team exemplifies the values I stand for: when I asked myself with which group I can unlock the next phase of growth, the answer was clear.”
Attracted to all things at the extreme edges of innovation, she gets her high from deep tech. “There’s never been a more exciting time for boring infrastructure, as Tim Hockin used to say”. She likes partnering with founders with a fire in their belly, high agency and low ego. “Macro optimist but micro pessimist. Also let no one else dictate the reach of your dreams.“
Manjot brings the same intensity and curiosity she has at work to her fitness and play: she stumbled into aerial silks and circus arts and is passionate about long-distance running. “Always learning and growing, reinventing myself, the next innings of life has just begun.”
Namita Thapar
Executive Director,
Emcure Pharmaceuticals
Namita Thapar
Executive Director,Emcure Pharmaceuticals
Mrs. Namita Thapar is the Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Pune with a turnover of 6000 crores ($750 million). It has a presence in 70+ countries and an employee strength of over 10,000. Namita is an MBA graduate from the Fuqua School of Business and a Chartered Accountant from ICAI. She is a recipient of various prestigious corporate awards such as the 40 under Forty award by Economic Times and Top 50 Most Powerful Women in business by Business Today. Outside of work, Namita is passionate about improving women’s health in India and promoting entrepreneurship. Namita has launched a unique YouTube talk show on women’s health called Uncondition Yourself with Namita. She leads Thapar Entrepreneurs Academy that teaches entrepreneurship and is part of the global television show Shark Tank India.
Neha Kant
Founder & Director,
Clovia
Neha Kant
Founder & Director,Clovia
Working for a decade with corporate India, where she led business for some big names, she decided to start on her own, to address the big gap in the Indian women innerwear market with limited sizes, fits available.
With Clovia, Neha wanted to redefine the Indian lingerie market, and help customers choose beyond standard cuts, shapes and colors. Her mantra - lingerie is a critical part of your wardrobe and it doesn’t need to be drab and boring. Right from the time of Clovia’s inception, Neha was pretty clear that she needed to change the way lingerie was sold and Clovia is disrupting the way lingerie is being sold in India. For her outstanding work in the industry at large, Neha has been awarded as Best Women Entrepreneur by RBL Bank SME Business Excellence awards in the year 2017.
The objective is to occupy the “most-favorite brand”; space in the minds of her consumer as the space presently awaits an occupier.
Nithya Easwaran
Managing Director,
Multiples Alternate Asset Management
Nithya Easwaran
Managing Director,Multiples Alternate Asset Management
Nithya has over 25 years of rich experience in financial services. She is Managing Director of Multiples Alternate Asset Management, a private equity platform with AUM of over US$ 2 billion.
Nithya joined Multiples in 2010 and leads the financial services and fintech investing practice. She is a Director on the Board of Multiples and a part of the Investment Committee. Nithya developed Multiples’ proprietary framework - Leadership Energy Level - to analyze DNA of entrepreneurs.
Nithya is a Director on the Board of Arvind Fashions, APAC Financial Services, Kogta Financial (India) Limited, Acko Technology & Services Private Limited , Niyo Solutions Inc., DAM Capital Advisors Ltd and independent director on the Board of Zerodha Asset Management Company. She is a founding member of the India Chapter of Bloomberg Women’s Buyside Network and works closely with WIN PE in coaching young women professionals in investing. The Association of International Wealth Management of India featured her amongst India’s Top 100 Women in Finance 2020.
Prior to joining Multiples, Nithya had a 14 year banking career across Citibank and ICICI focused on structured finance. In her banking stint, she has pioneered several unique securitization, mezzanine debt and leveraged finance transactions. She holds an engineering degree from VJTI, Mumbai and an MBA from IIM, Lucknow.
Nithya enjoys spending time with her teenage son, loves reading and connecting with nature. She dedicates time over the weekends for teaching Maths to disadvantaged children.
Nruthya Madappa
Partner,
3one4 Capital
Nruthya Madappa
Partner,3one4 Capital
Nruthya Madappa is the Partner and Head of Growth and Capital Development at 3one4 Capital.
She supports investments, topline and capital growth for the portfolio at the firm, and works closely with global institutional and strategic investors to drive growth of 3one4-portfolio companies. Her team
partners deeply with portfolio companies in planning and achieving financial and strategic objectives including capital raises, revenue acceleration, M&A, and exits.
Over her career in the US and India, Nruthya led global teams across technology, finance, real estate, education, and economic policy. Before 3one4 Capital, Nruthya founded and led The CoWrks Foundry (a business accelerator for early-stage companies) as Managing Partner, investing in over 25 companies and establishing global partnerships with Yale and Columbia University.
Prior to The CoWrks Foundry she drove the Revenue and Growth orgs at Cuemath. Throughout her career, Nruthya has designed and scaled products, and raised
capital for high-growth companies - strengths she brings to bear for the 3one4-portfolio.
Nruthya holds Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Nupur Garg
Founder,
Winpe
Nupur Garg
Founder,Winpe
Nupur Garg is a leading investor in private equity and venture capital and an expert advisor to large institutional investors. Nupur’s experience spans private equity investing, operations and finance in leading global organizations like IFC – an arm of the World Bank Group, Discovery Networks and PwC.
Nupur is an external expert on the investment committee for the INR 10,000 crore Govt of India Fund of Fund for Start-ups and an independent member of the investment committee at the Fund of Funds managed by NIIF, the quasi sovereign wealth fund in India. She is an advisor to and a member of the investment committee for the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) investment funds mandate given by the Dutch government for investments in SMEs in frontier markets across 75 countries. Nupur serves as an independent director on the boards of three companies, including SIDBI, the Indian DFI. She advises select fund managers on a confidential basis on matters related to institutionalization, best practices and governance. She also mentors female entrepreneurs across various platforms.
Nupur was listed among Forbes India W-Power; Self-Made Women 2020, India’s top 100 Women in Finance (AIWMI 2019) and awarded the Business Excellence and Innovative Best Practices - Academia Award 2019.
In her last and most recent full time role, Nupur led the private equity and venture capital funds business in the region for IFC and is widely credited with establishing IFC’s brand and credibility as one of the most respected institutional investors in this space. Under her stewardship, the portfolio doubled in size and returns, moving from a negative IRR to delivering gains for the first time in its history.
Nupur is a CA and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, with executive education from Harvard Business School.
Nupur loves to spend time with her mother, husband and 5 year-old son, travel to new places, read and do 1000/ 1500 piece puzzles.
Paras Nayyar
Managing Director & CFO,
True North
Paras Nayyar
Managing Director & CFO,True North
Paras joined True North in 2016 and she oversees finance, corporate governance, domestic investor relations, human resources and marketing initiatives at the Firm.
Before joining True North, Paras held senior leadership positions across organisations such as KPMG, Fidelity International, L&T Financial Services and CRISIL. Through her professional career, Paras has built significant expertise across corporate strategy, fund structuring, treasury, mergers and acquisitions, audit services, legal, regulatory and compliance functions.
She has completed her Bachelors in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi and is a merit-ranking Chartered Accountant. She has also completed the Accelerated Development Program (ADP) from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Paras has also been featured in the coveted list of India's Top 100 Women in Finance by Association of International Wealth Management of India (AIWMI) for 2020.
In her spare time, she enjoys fitness, music and reading. She loves to try new things and is presently learning how to play the guitar.
Pearl Agarwal
Founder & Managing Director,
Eximius Ventures
Pearl Agarwal
Founder & Managing Director,Eximius Ventures
"We aren't just your mentors or advisors, but peer investors & friends whom you can call when things are going well, but most importantly when they are not."
An investor with the heart of an entrepreneur, Pearl started Eximius to help early-stage founders dedicate their time where it's needed the most by removing the biggest thorn in the flesh: cumbersome fundraising processes. She is the co-founder of DotReview and has also spent around 10 years in investment roles in the US and UK, facilitating multi-billion dollar mergers, helping companies raise capital, and more.
Dr. Poornima Dore
Author & Social Finance Expert, Director - Analytics, Insights & Impact,
Tata Trusts
Dr. Poornima Dore
Author & Social Finance Expert, Director - Analytics, Insights & Impact,Tata Trusts
Dr. Poornima Dore is an Economist and Business Leader, driving impact through finance, innovation and digital transformation. Her exposure ranging from villages and businesses to board rooms, has made her a strong advocate of harnessing risk capital for sustainable growth and development. She serves on the Board of select institutions as well as Ministerial Committees with the Government of India and has been recognised as one of the top 100 Analytics Leaders in South Asia.
A member of the prestigious TAS cadre, she led the Structured Investments vertical at Tata Capital Ltd, completing marquee transactions in automotive, pharma, tech, insurance and other sectors, through equity, preferred and mezzanine capital. She developed the pioneering area of Data Driven Governance, anchoring investment and advisory work with governments on tech for good and SDG localisation. She currently works as Director - Analytics, Insights & Impact at the Tata Trusts. She has catalysed private sector investments in digital public goods, market access, jobs, urbanisation and has designed innovative institutional mechanisms for SME and Impact financing.
She is a life member with the Institute of Directors, and believes that good governance and future-readiness are critical for long term growth. A published author, her book “Regional Economic Diversity: Lessons from an Emergent India” takes a deep dive into the important debates of our times around dimensions of economic structure and access to finance, skills and markets, and underscores the need for business, government and investors to focus on regional vibrance. Her most recent foray is teaching Social Finance as a visiting professor at the XLRI School of Management. She is also an avid musician, and plays the drums to keep her sanity intact.
Priyanka Salot
Co-Founder,
The Sleep Company
Priyanka Salot
Co-Founder,The Sleep Company
Pullela Gopichand
Indian Badminton Player
Pullela Gopichand
Indian Badminton Player
Pullela Gopichand was born on November 16, 1973 to Pullela Subash Chandra Bose and Pullela Subbaravamma at Nagandla, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. He has won two Gold medals at the national games of 1998. His international career had already been kick started in 1991 when he was chosen to represent the Indian team against Malaysia. He made big strides at the highest level after winning two Gold medals at the SAARC Badminton Championship. He also later went on to win medals at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and won a variety of other tournaments like Toulouze Open, Scottish Open and the Asian Satellite Open.
His career had been moving along smoothly. But his crowning glory came in 2001 when he became just the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to win the prestigious All England Championships. Gopichand took the charge as the Chief National Coach for Badminton Association of India in 2004. While Gopi inspired a generation of players to take up badminton during his playing days, as a coach, Gopi has nurtured that generation into top class players.
Out of the many awards he received after 2001, one was a huge piece of land the government awarded to him in a prime area in Hyderabad. Gopi decided to use this land for the academy and set about acquiring the required funding and sponsors for it. The creme de la creme of Indian badminton now regularly trains at Gopi’s academy under his tutelage. The list includes Saina Nehwal, P.V Sindhu, P. Kashyap, K Sriknath and RMV Guru Sai Dutt. Apart from the top players there are many young and upcoming players in the academy as well. Under his guidance Indian Badminton Players has won Many Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Thomas and Uber Cup, Super Series, Gold Grand Prix and Other National and International Event.
After finishing playing career with a desire to help nurture future badminton players from our country Mr. Pullela Gopichand started coaching in April 2004. All this has been possible due to the continuous efforts of Mr. P. Gopichand and also the excellent infrastructure available at the academy. The foundation sponsored and the academy hosted the Krishna Kaitan Memorial all India championships in 2008. 1200 junior players from all across the country have participated in the event. The academy today has over 100 players in the coaching program. Players from countries like Canada, France, Czech, Pakistan, and Srilanka have been undergoing training at the academy. The Academy has been officially nominated as “ASIA TRAINING CENTER” by the prestigious Badminton Asia Confederation. These allow the players, coaches and officials across Asia to be trained on the latest advancements, techniques and developments in Badminton.
Puneet Bhatia
Co-Managing Partner,
TPG
Puneet Bhatia
Co-Managing Partner,TPG
Puneet Bhatia is the Co-Managing Partner for TPG Capital Asia and the head of TPG Capital India. He has created and led over fifteen transactions for TPG Capital in India including Matrix Laboratories, Vishal Retail, invested over $500m in the Shriram group in four of the group companies, in Manipal Hospitals, and Jana Bank, in UPL Corp, Sai Pharma and RR Kabel and recently in Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail and in Fractal. He currently serves on most of the Board of Directors of these companies.
Prior to joining TPG in April 2002, Mr. Bhatia was Chief Executive, Private Equity Group for GE Capital India ("GE Capital"), where he was responsible for conceptualizing and creating its direct and strategic private equity investment group. As Chief Executive, he created and handled a portfolio of almost a dozen companies such as TCS, Patni Computers, BirlaSoft, Sierra Atlantic, iGate, Indus Software and Rediff. He was also responsible for consummating some of GE Capital's joint ventures in India. Prior to this, Mr. Bhatia was with ICICI Ltd from 1990 to 1995 in the Project and Corporate Finance group and worked as Senior Analyst with Crosby Securities from 1995 to 1996.
Mr. Bhatia was born, grew up in and is based in India. He has a B.Com Honors degree from the Sriram College of Commerce, Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Rahul Chowdhri
Partner,
Stellaris Venture Partners
Rahul Chowdhri
Partner,Stellaris Venture Partners
Rahul Chowdhri is a Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners. Stellaris is an early stage tech focused venture platform. At Stellaris, Rahul focuses on Commerce, Consumer Tech, Gaming & Edtech investments. Over the last 15 years, Rahul has led investments in companies like Mamaearth, Bigbasket, Livspace, Simplilearn, 91squarefeet, Toppr, ID Fresh, Zouk, Rigi and several others.
Prior to Stellaris, Rahul was a Partner at Helion Ventures. Before that, Rahul held various roles in product management at Microsoft, marketRx Inc and i2 Technologies. He started his career in consulting with BCG. Rahul holds an MBA degree from IIM Calcutta and B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur.
Dr Rashi Gupta
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer,
REZO.AI
Dr Rashi Gupta
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer,REZO.AI
A data science professional with expertise in data mining and developing statistical & computational strategies for handling complex data sets. Have designed and developed models which have been published in world-renowned journals. Rashi has been the Sr. Group Manager at WNS Global Services, Subject Matter Expert at Absolutdata, Lead Data Scientist at CorrZ, and Assistant Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Received a doctorate from the University of Helsinki and double masters from IIT Delhi.
Rema Subramanian
Co-founder and Managing Partner,
Ankur Capital
Rema Subramanian
Co-founder and Managing Partner,Ankur Capital
Rema has 4 decades experience in 0 to 1 and 1 to 10 stages of enterprises, founding a few, investing and in operational roles in others. Her career has been in category creating products and in future forward technology companies. Some of her notable experiences has been digitalization of financial service sector in early 90’s to edtech at the start of internet to digitalization of SMB in late 80’s. Her experience extended to category creating product lines such as menswear to home water filters. This gave her the experience in forecasting tech use cases before it become mainstream and identifying business opportunities. Her hands on approach to nurture and help these businesses take root has been her main strength. She has helped businesses grow 20X on an average across the companies she has worked with.
That also led to Ankur Capital. The first decade+ of the millennium saw growth of mobile connectivity, highwayisation, retail activity along the newly built highways and a rapidly increasing aspirational population. At the sametime, India was seeing an increasing activity happening in biotech. Both Rema and Ritu strongly believed middle India was going be the next big opportunity with under penetrated sectors such as agtech, health and related sectors to be the next wave.
She is a Cost and Management Accountant (AICWA), ICS, PGD in Systems Management. She is an active contributor to theeco-system as a member of the executive council of IVCA and IIC
Renuka Ramnath
Founder, MD & CEO,
Multiples Alternate Asset Management
Renuka Ramnath
Founder, MD & CEO,Multiples Alternate Asset Management
Renuka Ramnath is the Founder, Managing Director and CEO of Multiples Alternate Asset Management, a private equity manager and advisor to funds of ~ USD 1.5 bn. She has over 30 years of experience in the Indian financial sector across private equity, investment banking and structured finance.
For close to three decades in financial services, Renuka successfully built several businesses in the ICICI Group including Investment Banking, e-commerce and private equity. As the MD & CEO of ICICI Venture for close to a decade, she led that firm to become one of the largest private equity funds in India.
She is a Board member of EMPEA, the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets. She is also the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of Indian Venture Capital Association. Renuka has been featured in many prestigious listings, including the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business (Business Today, India); India's most Powerful CEO's (Economic Times), the Top 25 Non Bank Women in Finance (US Banker's global list), Asia's Women in the Mix: The Year's Top 50 for Achievement in Business (Forbes), Top 25 women in Asian asset management (Asian Investor) and most recently has been awarded the AVCJ Special Achievement Award, 2019.
Rochelle D’Souza
Managing Director,
Lighthouse Advisors
Rochelle D’Souza
Managing Director,Lighthouse Advisors
Rochelle D'Souza is Managing Director at Lighthouse Advisors. Prior to Lighthouse Advisors, she was a Manager at SBI Capital Markets, Investment Banking Division, where she focused on equity capital market transactions.
Rochelle earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communication from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) and an MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research. She is also a CFA Level III candidate.
Roshni Rathi
Managing Partner & Director,
BCG
Roshni Rathi
Managing Partner & Director,BCG
Roshni Rathi is a core member of Boston Consulting Group’s Principal Investors & Private Equity (PIPE) and Corporate Finance & Strategy (CFS) practices in India. Roshni has worked extensively with private equity clients and investors on topics along the investment lifecycle. Her experience includes commercial due diligence, portfolio acceleration, exit planning, sell-side due diligence, and fund strategy and operations. Roshni is also BCG’s Asia Pacific leader for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), helping clients enhance their employee value proposition and tailor products and services through a DEI lens.
Ruchin Goyal
Managing Director & Senior Partner,
BCG
Ruchin Goyal
Managing Director & Senior Partner,BCG
Ruchin leads the Financial Services practice for Boston Consulting Group in India. He has extensive experience working with clients across financial services, including banks, NBFCs, asset management companies and insurance companies. His experience has covered topics such as large-scale transformations, growth strategy, operational improvement and organizational effectiveness.
Ruchi Khajanchi
CFO,
A91 Partners
Ruchi Khajanchi
CFO,A91 Partners
Ruchi oversees finance, legal, tax, and investor reporting at Epiq Capital. She has over 12 years’ of transaction advisory experience at N.A. Shah Associates where she advised clients on several complex assignments including negotiation, vetting of legal documents, coordinating due diligence, tax and regulatory structuring, and transaction closing. She also has experience in fund raising, setting up of PE/VC funds (under SEBI AIF regulations) and has been involved in advising on M&A, business restructuring, cross border structuring, etc. She has worked with clients across various industries including technology, media, real estate, pharmaceuticals, logistics, etc..
Ruchi started her career as a Business Leadership Trainee with Hindustan Unilever Limited.
Ruchi is a Chartered Accountant and achieved a 34th all India rank.
Dr. Sanjay Arora
Founder,
Suburban Diagnostics
Dr. Sanjay Arora
Founder,Suburban Diagnostics
Dr. Arora is the founder of Suburban Diagnostics, a leading diagnostics centre and lab across western India Group Medical Director - Dr Lal PathLabs
TEDx Speaker, Dr. Arora has spoken at various conferences and events, sharing his entrepreneurial journey, experiences and learnings.
Dr. Arora is known to be a thought leader in the Diagnostics and Healthcare industry. His visionary approach towards women’s health has helped bring a change and improve the health outcomes and health indices in the country. Recently, he has been awarded as an “Influential Leader of New India 2021” by Teammarksmen in association with CNN-News18.
Dr. Arora has graduated from Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital, with a special interest in Cytopathology. He has trained at esteemed Tata Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Henry Ford Hospital, USA
He is a global traveller, amateur chef, travel photographer and DJ who loves sharing his entrepreneurial journey, experiences and learnings. His demeanor has also led him to be a constant student of leadership who is actively learning to be a better version of himself from global gurus like Dr. Marshall Goldsmith.
Sareena Singh
Coach, Mentor, Social Entrepreneur
Sareena Singh
Coach, Mentor, Social Entrepreneur
With 26+ years of diverse experience in the financial services industry (Royal Bank of Scotland, ABN AMRO Bank and Bank of America), Sareena’s profile is a rich aggregation of various roles across the front and back office, a healthy combination of line and support functions. She has led small & highly skilled, as well as large teams across various areas: Risk Management, Strategy Development, M & A execution, Client Servicing, Operations, Training, Core Banking System implementations and Business Consultancy for efficiency enhancements. Sareena has worked with, and managed teams within and outside the country, both within the APAC region and globally.
Sareena is an experienced trainer and accomplished coach and has facilitated numerous leadership and career transitions. She has conducted multiple workshops on skills including confidence, personal brand, influencing, stakeholder management, women in leadership.
Shweta Jalan
Managing Partner,
Advent International
Shweta Jalan
Managing Partner,Advent International
Shweta is Managing Partner and India Head for Advent International. She has over 22 years of experience in Private Equity. She joined Advent in 2009. She has led and is managing investments of over $4 bn at Advent India across various sectors. Prior to that she worked for almost a decade at ICICI Venture, which at the time was the largest private equity firm in India. Shweta has experience in sourcing and negotiating transactions and advising on the management and successful exiting of investments through both sale to strategic buyers and listing of companies. She has experience of working across a wide range of sectors including consumer, healthcare, FIG and IT/BPO. Before joining ICICI Venture, she was working for a year at Ernst & Young in their corporate finance division.
Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann
Chairman & Managing Director,
SIDBI
Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann
Chairman & Managing Director,SIDBI
Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann, belongs to 1991 batch of Indian Audit & Accounts Service (IA&AS). He joined as Chairman & Managing Director, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) from 19th April 2021. Before joining SIDBI, he was MD & CEO of National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL) from December 2016. Prior to joining NeSL, Shri Ramann was the Principal Accountant General (Audit), Jharkhand, Ranchi during 2015-2016. He worked with SEBI as CGM and later Executive Director between 2007 & 2013.
He held various positions in the offices under the C&AG of India in various States and also worked as Executive Secretary to the C&AG of India. He worked as First Secretary, at Indian High Commission, London for auditing the accounts of various Indian Embassies in Europe. He is BA (Hons) Economics from St Stephens College and MBA from FMS, Delhi University. He has done M. Sc. in Regulations from London School of Economics and Certified Internal Auditor from IIA Florida. He completed LLB from Mumbai University and Post Graduate Diploma in Securities Law.
Sonali Jindal
Co-founder & COO,
Kissht & RING
Sonali Jindal
Co-founder & COO,Kissht & RING
Multi-hatter, presently #BuildingRING. We seek to serve the unserved millennials and offer them transactional credit. Firm believer in digital lending and its massive potential in the Indian context.
As a co-founder, I lead business initiatives. Passionate about financial inclusivity, business growth and empowering high-performing teams. Curious about the role of technology and analytics in building a cutting-edge product, curate personalised customer experiences and build user stickiness.
Love to challenge status quo. Learner for life.
Sushma Kaushik
Partner,
Aavishkaar Capital
Sushma Kaushik
Partner,Aavishkaar Capital
Sushma is a Partner at Aavishkaar and brings with her over 18 years of diverse experience in the field of early stage investing, small business incubation and consulting across sectors. Sushma has worked to identify, manage and exit large number of companies and has worked closely with several inclusive business entrepreneurs. She has been an active representative on the Boards of several early-growth stage companies. She started off with an entrepreneurial venture in engineering design services and moved on to roles in investments. She has extensively evaluated transactions covering debt and equity structures. While at Ashoka- Innovators for the Public, Sushma got to work with social entrepreneurs in the Housing for All initiative. She has worked closely on building collaborative partnerships in market based solutions for the low-income populations. Sushma has completed a strategic leadership program at the prestigious Harvard Business School, she is an engineering graduate from RVCE, Bangalore and has an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Sujoy Bose
Managing Director & CEO,
NIIF
Sujoy Bose
Managing Director & CEO,NIIF
Sujoy is a business leader with over three decades of extensive experience in emerging markets investing and project finance, covering infrastructure, industrials and services sectors. During his career, he has worked on projects covering over 50 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. He joined NIIF as the MD & CEO in 2016 and is currently based in Mumbai. Prior to joining NIIF, he spent over 25 years at International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment and financing arm of the World Bank Group. During his tenure at IFC, he has held several leadership positions, with his last position being Director and Global Co-Head, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, based in Washington DC, managing a USD 14 billion portfolio. Prior to this position, he also served as the Chief Investment Officer and Head of IFC’s African Latin American and Caribbean Fund, based in Washington DC, where he managed and led a USD 1 billion regional growth fund to selectively co-invest with IFC. From 2006-2010, Sujoy led IFC’s Mumbai office and was responsible for managing its growth and building a strong team of 40 investment professionals as an important part of IFC’s goals for localization of its business. He started his career as a Management Associate with Citibank in Chennai in 1991 as part of the Credit Cards business within the Consumer Banking Group. Sujoy holds a Bachelor’s in Commerce from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India and is an MBA in Finance from Rice University, Houston, Texas.
Vikash Agarwalla
Managing Partner & Director,
BCG
Vikash Agarwalla
Managing Partner & Director,BCG
Vikash is a core member of Boston Consulting Group’s Health Care practice. He has worked on strategy and operations topics with several pharmacos, especially those focused on the generics and branded generics space in India. He has also worked with some of the leading consumer health care and fast-moving consumer goods companies.
Dr. Vikram Popli
Director of Investments,
LeapFrog Investments
Dr. Vikram Popli
Director of Investments,LeapFrog Investments
Dr. Vikram Popli is a Director with LeapFrog’s Asia team. He is an orthopedic surgeon with more than a decade of experience in healthcare private equity investment.
After completing his MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College, Vikram completed his MS in orthopedics from Safdarjang Hospital. He has also obtained an MBA in Finance from ISB Hyderabad. He comes to LeapFrog not only with deep medical experience, but with 10 years of experience in private equity through OrbiMed, a healthcare focused fund, where he was a Director.
Vikram has experience of investing in various sub-sectors in healthcare and lifesciences including hospitals, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and distribution. He was involved in multiple investments at OrbiMed, including KIMS Hospital, a leading chain of hospitals in Kerala and GCC, Surya Children’s Medicare, the largest private neonatal and pediatric hospital in Mumbai, and Advanced Enzymes, the largest enzyme company in India and in the Top 15 businesses in its industry globally. He has successfully exited investments generating good returns for the investors. His experience in these investments spans all stages of the transaction from deal identification, diligence, negotiation, investment, post investment monitoring, performance improvement, impact assessment and exit.
Vinayak Shrivastav
CEO & Co-founder,
VideoVerse
Vinayak Shrivastav
CEO & Co-founder,VideoVerse
Vinayak is the CEO and Co-founder of VideoVerse, a video technology company that encapsulates an ecosystem of smart video editing tools using AI and provides next-generation platforms for all enterprise and individual creators. He, along with his partners identified a need for automation in the video content category, giving way to the inception of VideoVerse.
In his current role, Vinayak spearheads the strategic goals of the company to create a profitable future roadmap. He has built the sales and marketing strategy from scratch and under his leadership, the company has witnessed a significant growth of over 200% year on year.
Born and brought up in Pune, armed with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Pune University, and an MBA from London Business School , Vinayak has achieved several milestones throughout his prolific career. Having been a former VC, Vinayak has worked with a few start-ups who were in their growth stage and has successfully exited those early-stage start-ups.
He is passionate about his work and strives to keep innovating, remain customer-focused, and be a leading video-tech platform not just in India but also across the globe, this is the reason why he has been able to create 150+ job across various segments. In the coming future, he aims to strengthen the global presence of VideoVerse in US and Europe as well as focus on MENA and South East Asia. Being a Punekar at heart he is always looking at growing the VideoVerse community in Maharashtra and creating new avenues for aspiring technology enthusiasts.
An avid reader, he enjoys playing the guitar and tennis when he is not working. Currently residing in Mumbai with his family, he follows the motto of ‘everyone has stories to tell’ – stories that will not only engage, inform, surprise, delight, and impact their audience, but will also deliver on measurable business goals
Vineeta Singh
Co-Founder & CEO,
SUGAR Cosmetics
Vineeta Singh
Co-Founder & CEO,SUGAR Cosmetics
Vineeta Singh is the Co-Founder & CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics – the cult-favourite beauty brand amongst Gen Z and Millennials. With an annualized sales run rate of INR 500+ CR, the company has scaled faster than any other and is now one of the top cosmetics brands in terms of sales contribution in the country. It has a physical presence of over 45,000+ retail touchpoints as of now across 550+ cities and has a digital community of five million beauty enthusiasts across all platforms with its own website and mobile app getting more than a million unique visitors every month.
Over a decade ago, IIM Ahmedabad/IIT Madras alumni, Vineeta Singh had declined a top dollar investment banking placement offer to start her own venture. Having served in leadership positions at various other multi-million-dollar businesses since and successfully building India’s largest beauty subscription service along the way – Vineeta co founded SUGAR Cosmetics in 2015 with a single-point agenda of creating world-class makeup products with high-pigmentation that specifically catered to the Indian skin tone.
With a vision of building SUGAR as “fast fashion for the face,” Vineeta advocates a fast-paced work culture where speed and experimentation lead the way for rapid innovation and a launch-packed calendar. The women-centric D2C brand, with a focus on core business fundamentals and an innate understanding of the customer and her needs boasts an impressive workforce of 3000+ employees with over 75 percent being women. Under her leadership, the startup clocked a 60% growth in sales during the pandemic and even hit the 2.4+ million mark on Instagram, making it one of the largest digital-first brands in India. Well-regarded in entrepreneurial circles for her business ventures, Vineeta is one of the investors on Shark Tank India, one of the most successful reality shows in the country in recent times, which witnessed Vineeta investing and mentoring the budding future entrepreneurs of India. As an esteemed voice in the industry, Vineeta has also spoken at multiple business summits and government platforms where she has shared candid details about her journey and the future endeavors in store for the D2C sector.
She is also a fitness buff with numerous ultra marathons and triathlons to her credit. Being an avid runner for the last decade, she has completed the Comrades Ultra-marathon which is 89 km long, thrice from 2012-14. Apart from that, Vineeta and her husband Kaushik, are also the first Indian couple to finish the grueling long-distance Ironman triathlon in Austria (3.8km swim, 180km cycle, 42.2km run) – which is widely regarded as the toughest single-day sporting event in the world.
Vishal Tulsyan
Managing Director & CEO,
Motilal Oswal Alternates
Vishal Tulsyan
Managing Director & CEO,Motilal Oswal Alternates
Mr. Vishal Tulsyan is the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Motilal Oswal Alternates (MO Alternates). He founded MO Alternates (erstwhile Motilal Oswal Private Equity) in 2006 with MOFSL being the sponsor. At MO Alternates, Vishal looks to build a platform to channelize long-term capital to create valuable enterprises and successful entrepreneurs.
He plays a crucial role in building the team and defining the strategies that have taken MO Alternates to its present levels and has been directly involved both in identifying businesses, as well as in supporting portfolio companies.
Vishal has spent two decades in the Indian financial sector across private equity, investment banking and structured finance. He brings on board his deep experience of raising, investing and returning third party capital across several economic cycles.
Prior to founding MO Alternates, Vishal was with Rabobank during its formative years in India, helping build its corporate finance and investment banking franchise. He was responsible for the origination and execution of structured finance, project finance, acquisition finance, private equity and M&A transactions. During his Rabobank tenure, he executed ~50 transactions aggregating more than INR 900 bn and helped build the life sciences practice in India into a key business driver.
Vishal holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the prestigious St. Xaviers' College, Kolkata and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (all-India #21 rank).
Zia Mody
Co-Founder & Managing Partner,
AZB & Partners
Zia Mody
Co-Founder & Managing Partner,AZB & Partners
Zia J. Mody, Co–Founder and Managing Partner of AZB & Partners, is one of India’s foremost corporate attorneys. Zia is widely acknowledged for her expertise, ranking No. 1 in Fortune India’s ‘India’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business’ list in 2018 & 2019, on which she has consistently ranked in the top 10 since 2011.
Zia has held and continues to hold several prestigious positions at global and national levels. She currently serves as a Member, Governing Board – International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and Member – CII National Council. She was the Vice President & Member – London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and Member – World Bank Administrative Tribunal, Washington D.C.. In addition, Zia has served in various capacities on several committees and panels set up by Indian regulatory bodies including SEBI, RBI, Law Commission of India and Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Zia has been a recipient of numerous awards recognizing her individual and professional achievements as a legal practitioner and leader. She completed her masters in law from the Harvard Law School and is a member of the New York State Bar Association. Zia’s practice areas include Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, Restructuring and General Corporate, Compliance & Investigation, Dispute Resolution, and Regulatory & Securities Law.