Event Speakers
Gopal Jain
Founder & Managing Partner, <br>Gaja Capital
Gopal Jain
Founder & Managing Partner, <br>Gaja Capital
Gopal Jain is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Gaja Capital (www.gajacapital.com), an India-focused growth & buyout firm based in Mumbai. Founded in 2005, Gaja is a leading player in India’s private equity market with an exceptional track record of 20+ investments and an AUM of over $500m. Gaja has invested consistently in India’s mid-market across themes in education, financial services & consumer. Gaja Capital has been adjudged as the best Indian mid-market PE firm thrice in the last 10 years (Venture Intelligence). Home grown, Gaja Capital is one of the few indigenous PE firms in India to operate at scale.
Gopal leads both the executive and investment functions at the firm and has personally led several of the Firm’s investments. Gopal has been investing in Indian equities since the age of thirteen and has been a professional investor in the Indian capital markets for almost thirty years. He is one of the more experienced private equity investors in India, having led or co-led over 25 private equity investments since his first investment in TV-18 in 1995. Several of the companies Gopal has backed have grown 10x in value since the investment. Prior to Gaja Capital, he was country head for the Boston-based View Group one of the pioneers in Indian private equity.
Gopal is an active columnist and is currently member of SEBI’s Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee and Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s Executive Committee. He has a deep interest in the social sector and leads Gaja Gives which supports a wide and growing number of philanthropic efforts in India.
Gopal is a Graduate in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi. He is remembered on the campus for being one of the first graduates from the institute to turn entrepreneur before graduating. He currently lives in Mumbai with his mother Sudesh, wife Chitra and daughters Srishti and Ira.
Gaja Capital’s investments include : Eurokids, RBL Bank, TeamLease & John Distilleries. A longer list is available on their website.
GV Ravishankar
Managing Director, <br>Sequoia
GV Ravishankar
Managing Director, <br>Sequoia
GV Ravishankar is a Managing Director at Sequoia Capital India. At Sequoia, GV Ravishankar advises on both technology as well as non-technology investments. He’s deeply interested in technology’s role in helping to drive efficiencies, reduce costs and improve access in consumer and healthcare markets.
He currently serves on the boards of BYJUs, Capital Float, Eruditus Learning, Faces Cosmetics, Five Star finance, Finova Capital, HomeLane, India Shelter Finance Corporation, Indigo Paints, K12 Technoservices, Prataap Snacks (NSE: DIAMONDYD), Rebel Foods, Rupeek, Suburban Diagnostics and Turtlemint. I have also served as board member/observer of companies like Via (sold to NASDAQ: EBIX ), Manappuram (NSE: MANAPPURAM) and Equitas (NSE: EQUITAS).
Prior to this, GV worked at McKinsey & Company, where he advised senior management of top Indian companies on a variety of issues including business building, channel management and leadership development. He also had a prior stint with Wipro Technologies in their Embedded and Internet Access division.
GV has an MBA from IIMA and holds a BE in Computer Science and Engineering from NIT Trichy.
Harsh Singhal
Managing Director, <br>CDPQ
Harsh Singhal
Managing Director, <br>CDPQ
Harsh is Managing Director at CDPQ, responsible for the externally managed investing program in India. Prior to joining CDPQ, Harsh worked with International Finance Corporation (IFC) in New Delhi. Prior to joining IFC, Harsh has worked with Boston Consulting Group and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he worked on diverse topics ranging from investment structuring, M&A and operational improvement in companies.
Harsh is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (Indian CPA) and an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Janette Hall
Director, Investment Funds and Special Initiatives Division, <br>ADB
Janette Hall
Director, Investment Funds and Special Initiatives Division, <br>ADB
Janette Hall is a Director in ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department in charge of the Bank’s private equity funds and blended finance program. She joined ADB in January 2011.
Previously, Mrs. Hall was a senior banker in the Investment Banking Group at Bank of America San Francisco as well as in the Corporate Finance Group at KPMG New York, where she focused on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, debt capital raises and public/private equity capital raises. Ms. Hall began her career as an audit associate with Ernst & Young LLP, USA.
Mrs. Hall obtained her bachelor in arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, after which she obtained her MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
Nupur Garg
Founder, <br>Winpe
Nupur Garg
Founder, <br>Winpe
Nupur Garg is a leading investor in private equity and venture capital and an expert advisor to large institutional investors. She is the founder of Winpe (https://winpeforum.com), an initiative to enhance gender diversity in the investing ecosystem.
Nupur serves as Chairperson of the board of Kids Clinic India Limited and an independent director on the boards of companies including Edelweiss Real Assets Managers Limited, Kerala Infrastructure Fund Management Limited and SIDBI, the Indian development finance institution. She is an independent member of the investment committee at the Fund of Funds managed by the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), the quasi-sovereign wealth fund sponsored by the government of India, and 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. She has served as an external expert on the investment committee for the INR 10,000 crore Fund of Fund for Start-ups for investing in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Nupur 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 is recognized as a thought and industry leader with a long list of recognitions that include the HerPower Award 2023, BW VC World Most Influential Women 2023 and 2022, Forbes W-Power list of Self Made Women 2020, India’s top 10 Women Leaders in Finance (AIWMI 2019), Vedica Women’s Alliance’s Women Leader in D&I 2022, Women Empowerment Entrepreneur Award 2019-20 and the Business Excellence and Innovative Best Practices - Academia Award 2019.
Prior to starting her entrepreneurial journey, 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 8-year-old son, travel to new places, read and do 1500-piece puzzles.
Sujoy Bose
Managing Director & CEO, <br>NIIF
Sujoy Bose
Managing Director & CEO, <br>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.
Vishal Mahadevia
Managing Director, <br>Warburg Pincus
Vishal Mahadevia
Managing Director, <br>Warburg Pincus
Vishal Mahadevia is a Managing Director, Head of India, and member of the Executive Management Group. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus in 2006, he was a Principal at Greenbriar Equity Group, a fund focused on private equity investments in the Transportation sector. Prior to that, Mr. Mahadevia worked at Three Cities Research, a New York-based private equity fund and as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. He currently serves as a Managing Director of Warburg Pincus India Private Limited. Mr. Mahadevia is also a Director of Gangavaram Port Limited and IDFC First Bank Limited. He received a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Finance and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.