Private Markets Conference | Bengaluru

Chakra is a distinguished impact investment professional with over 15 years of experience in early-stage investing across emerging markets. As Co-CEO of Upaya and former India Country Director, he has led transformative investments in agritech, circularity, climate, and livelihoods, driving job creation and scaling impactful enterprises. Under his leadership, Upaya’s portfolio grew significantly, adding eight new companies, increasing dignified jobs by over 70%, and achieving a 15.4x follow-on multiple. Coming from a rural farming background, Chakra deeply understands underserved communities and champions business-driven impact solutions. He has spearheaded successful exits, pioneered Upaya’s Pool of Recoverable Grants (PRG) model, and built strategic industry partnerships. A trusted advisor to startup founders and mentor to investment professionals, he serves on Investment Committees supporting early-stage enterprises. Previously, Chakra led impact investments for a family office, a VC firm, and an incubator. He holds a B.Tech from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and an M.Sc. (ICT-ARD) from DA-IICT. His expertise and passion for impact-driven business models continue to drive systemic change in underserved communities.

Abhilash Padival is the Director of India Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. With over 15 years of experience in finance, investment banking, and IT, he worked with companies like Altisource and Avendus Capital. In his previous role at Quess Corp Limited, Abhilash was part of the Corporate Strategy and M&A team, responsible for capital allocation, portfolio management, and leadership development. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Visvsvaraya Technological University and is an alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB).

Alok Gupta is a Partner at Foundation Private Equity. He has previously worked with Headland Capital Partners, HSBC, Yes Bank, Rabo India Finance, and ANZ. He is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta.

Amit Jhunjhunwala joined Accel in 2015 and leads the finance organization at the India office. As CFO Amit is responsible for financial reporting of Accel India funds, as well as day-to-day management of operations, accounting, and tax matters. Amit also works with portfolio companies to address specific financial reporting and tax-related matters. Prior to joining Accel, Amit was a senior manager at KPMG (India), where he provided auditing, accounting advisory, and internal control-related services to large global businesses. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Amit grew up in Kolkata, India, and graduated from Calcutta University.

NSRCEL transforms aspirants to successful entrepreneurs by building their entrepreneurial capability and mindsets, bringing together academia and industry. Ganesh is passionate about creating ecosystems that enable innovations to create impact at nation scale. He has extensive global experience in business leadership roles in technology and consumer industries. His prior experience includes Pepsico, HP, Algonomy and BRIDGEi2i. He is a graduate from IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad.

Karuna has extensive experience and expertise in early-stage impact and private equity investing in healthcare and renewables. She is a founding partner at Enzia Ventures. She has held senior positions at Acumen, Aditya Birla Group, and Grasim Industries. In her previous roles, she drove investments in healthcare on a global level, managed a portfolio of more than 25 companies, and helped create an ecosystem for tech startups in healthcare, agriculture, and the environment. Karuna has taken on multiple roles in finance and corporate governance, including working on large M&A transactions and business restructuring. She has been a board member of several companies, including LifeSpring Hospitals, Frontier Markets, Edubridge Learning Systems, and Sewa Grih Rin.

Naganand Swamy, Managing Partner & Founder, Ideaspring Capital

Nitesh Aggarwal is the Chief Investment Officer at MSPL (Baldota Family Office), a $130 million single-family office fund investing in startups and funds across the US and India. He has over 15 years of experience and has previously worked with JetSynthesys, Ziprun, Edelweiss Financial Services, New Enterprise Associates, Q India Investment Advisors Ltd, and Bloomberg. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication from Manipal Institute of Technology and is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore.

Sanjay Swamy, Founder & Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners

Satyakam is the Chief Financial Officer at Blackbuck, where he oversees all financial functions, including Accounting, Business Finance/FP&A, Treasury, Legal & Secretarial, Investor Relations, Transaction Advisory, and Business Partnering. Prior to his current role, Satyakam held key positions at NTT DATA Services and Tesco HSC. During his previous endeavors, he has worked in deal consultancy, pricing analysis, and setting up revenue/cost accounting forecasts. Satyakam is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Bangalore University.

Somshubhro (Som) Pal Choudhury is a Co-Founder and Partner at BIF (Bharat Innovation Fund), an early stage deeptech fund focused on creating innovation and IP driven startups out of India. Previously, Som was the Managing Director of Analog Devices India, wholly owned subsidiary of $12B+ global semiconductor company headquartered in Boston, and was based for almost 2 decades in Silicon Valley in various roles: Global Product Management & Marketing Director at NETGEAR, first employee of an early M2M/IoT startup in the energy management/Smart grid space and held several management and engineering roles at Cadence Design Systems.

Som is currently on the board of US India Science and Technology Fund (USISTEF), on the board of multiple deeptech startups, and in semiconductor startup initiatives selection committee of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). He was previously a board member of Industry Body, IESA (India Electronics & Semiconductor Association). Som is an active advisor and mentor to several startups and co-chairs India's Deeptech ecosystem building thinktank and community, TiE MatrixForum and the conference TiE Matrix Global Summit. He is an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, and an engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and North Carolina State University.

Varun Malhotra, Partner at Quona Capital, has over a decade of venture investing experience across technology, financial services and impact. Varun focuses on Quona’s investment activities and portfolio in South and Southeast Asia. Prior to Quona, he worked in investment roles across Oak Investment Partners, Lok Capital and the D.E. Shaw Group. Varun was recognized as part of Forbes 30 under 30 for Finance & Venture Capital in Asia, and is a Kauffman Fellow.

Zerin is the co-founder of IndigoEdge Management Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. With over 15 years of experience, he has previously worked with Impelsys, SBI Mutual Funds, and MindTree. He holds a B.Tech from the National Institute of Technology Calicut and is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow.

Ramkumar Venkatramani (Ram) is Director of Impact investing at AVPN. AVPN is Asia’s largest network of impact funders. Ram oversees the impact ecosystem in South Asia, Middle East and Europe in this role and engages with institutional investors, family offices and other funders to mobilize capital towards impact. Prior to this, Ram was head of asset manager relationships at HSBC’s private banking and wealth management business. Before this, he was a portfolio manager at Thomas White International, a boutique asset management firm focused on emerging market investing where he oversaw a $2 billion portfolio. He has held roles in the Fintech space as Head of Investments and advisory at Globalise and Kristal.ai. Ram is a CFA charter holder, holds the CIPM designation and has a certificate in ESG investing from the CFA Institute. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of madras and a post graduate certificate in risk management from the New York university.

Sandeep Gupta CFA, is the Founder and CEO of Accred.ai, a new age Financial Distribution Fintech focussing on Alternatives. A serial startup entrepreneur, he most recently Co-Founded BHIVE Alts (a fractional Real Estate Fintech) and BHIVE Fund (Cat 2 SEBI Registered Alternative Investment Fund). His last corporate role was as head of Fractional Investments at Magicbricks. Sandeep is an AI & blockchain enthusiast who had earlier founded Trusken Blockchain Solutions and Frooms (Fractional Rooms) to create blockchain security tokens. Sandeep has over two decades of Real Estate transactions and investment experience. He has worked for marquee corporates, non-profits & PSU’s like BCCL (TOI Group), Britannia (Wadia Group), New Chennai Township, GMR, Cinepolis, Indian School of Business, India Tourism etc. Sandeep is a Charter Holder from the CFA Institute USA and is a Certified Investment Performance Measurement professional. He is a B.Com from Delhi University and is a Post Graduate in Management from IIM, Ahmedabad. He is an active volunteer with CFA Society India and chairs the Public Awareness Committee as a Board Member.

Mandar is a seasoned professional in valuation and alternative investments domains, having established a valuation and portfolio monitoring function for a global investment manager. His expertise spans asset classes such as Venture, Growth, Late-stage investing, and Private Credit, where he has built efficient teams and workflows to deliver independent assessments to various valuation committees, investors, auditors, regulators and other stakeholders. Mandar is dedicated to driving value creation and operational excellence in investment finance, portfolio finance and exits, and propelling financial strategy through initiatives like technology transformation. In his previous roles, he has offered independent, robust commercial advice and opinions on price and value to senior management of large corporations and funds, particularly in significant M&A transactions, joint ventures, restructurings, financial reporting, taxation and other corporate events.

Krishna is the founder of PrivateCircle, a Research + Connect marketplace platform that brings together growth companies, VC & PE funds, and HNIs seeking exposure to private equity investments. He has previously worked with Hinduja Global Solutions Inc. and MAPE Advisory Group. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras and IIM Calcutta.

Rajesh is a results-driven investor with nearly three decades of experience, specializing in early-stage investments, emerging markets, private equity, and public equity. With a proven track record of identifying high-growth opportunities in emerging markets, he has successfully guided startups to exits. An alumnus of Wharton and XLRI, he holds a CFA charter and a postgraduate diploma in Securities Law from GLC, Mumbai. He currently serves as the Chairperson of CFA Society India and CRUF (Corporate Reporting Users Forum) India, a global network of investors and analysts focused on accounting, governance, and regulatory issues. His unique blend of finance, marketing, and physics expertise allows him to uncover disruptive trends and apply a scientific approach to make data-driven investment decisions. Passionate about fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging economies, he also mentors entrepreneurs to help them make a positive impact on the world. Based in Mumbai with his wife and two children, he enjoys playing chess, golf, and mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs.

Vijayanand Venkataraman, CFA, has more than 20 years of experience investing in global markets and is the co-founder of Wealth Yantra Technologies Private Limited, an SEBI-Registered Investment Adviser. Until 2012, he was based out of Hong Kong SAR, managing a multiasset portfolio for global investment firms (hedge funds). His expertise spans asset classes that include equities, convertible bonds, and high-yield credit. In addition to managing his portfolio, he also assisted the chief investment officer in hedging the global macro and tail risks of the fund investments using derivative structures. In the early part of his professional career, he was part of the teams that advised the government of India on various policy implementation matters in energy, mining, and financial services. Venkataraman is a board member of CFA Society India. A mechanical engineer by training, he holds masters of business administration from BIM, Trichy and a MS in Financial Mathematics from University of Chicago, IL, USA.