Speaker Bio:  

Ashok Soota
Founder & Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds
Ashok Soota is widely recognized as one of the pioneering leaders of the Indian IT industry. Prior to founding Happiest Minds, Ashok co-founded MindTree in August 1999. Under Ashok&rsquot;s leadership, in a span of 11 years, MindTree became a global entity with revenue run rate of US$350 million, over 9000 people and offices in multiple cities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Prior to co-founding MindTree, Ashok was President of Wipro Infotech from 1984 to 1999. Under his leadership, Wipro&rsquot;s IT business grew from US$2 million in 1984 to US$500 million run-rate in 1999. Ashok began his career in 1965 with the Shriram Group of Industries in India. In 1978, he became CEO of Shriram Refrigeration, a company which was unprofitable for four consecutive years. Ashok facilitated a complete turnaround, making it profitable in his first year and taking it to a position of leadership in each of its product lines. Ashok is an industry leader. He was President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India&rsquot;s largest Industry association and also President of Manufacturers Association of Information Technology. He has served on the Prime Minister&rsquot;s Task Force for IT and on the Advisory Council for the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva. For his contribution to the Indian IT Industry, he was recognized as "IT Man of the Year" twice and as "Electronics Man of the Year". He is the recipient of the Prof. S. N. Mitra Award from Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Golden Peacock Award for Technology Leadership. He has been a member of the Global Board of Trustees of TiE. He has served on the Board of Governors of IIM, Kozhikode and was the founding Chief Patron of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled.
Bikky Khosla
Founder & CEO, Tradeindia.com
Bikky Khosla is the first-generation entrepreneur who revolutionised the Indian dotcom industry in trade, connecting buyers and sellers from across the globe, facilitating easy and smooth business. With a lofty vision of serving the trade community of India, Mr. Khosla conceptualized Infocom Network Ltd. in 1991. In the nineties the dotcom industry saw a boom swaying in the trade community under its grip. Mr. Khosla decided to deliver something extra to the trade community and this marked the beginning of India’s first B2B portal – tradeindia.com. The portal provided a platform to buyers and sellers across the world irrespective of distance, size and position of exporters, importers and service providers in diverse arenas. Today, apart from being the CEO of Tradeindia.com, Mr Khosla is also the Chairman of ASSOCHAM&rsquot;s expert committee on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Mohan Kumar
Executive Director, NVP India
Mohan brings in extensive operational, technology and investment experience, having worked at leading global organizations in various senior positions and personally investing in technology start-up companies. Mohan is based in NVP India’s Bengaluru office and serves as an advisor on investments in next-generation technologies, Healthcare and Education. Mohan advised NVP’s investment in Borqs, a leading open source mobile application software provider and integrator based out of Beijing and the U.S.. He also advised NVP&rsquot;s investment in Perfint Healthcare, which develops Image-guided robotic solutions for oncology.
Kumar Shiralagi
Managing Director, IUVP
Kumar Shiralagi is a Managing Director at IndoUS Venture Partners (IUVP), based in Bangalore, India. Prior to joining IUVP in 2007, he was the head of Intel Capital India, the venture capital group responsible for Indian investments. As the Country Director, he drove Intel&rsquot;s India investments and had avery successful run in making and managing investments and Exits. Notable companies in the portfolio were NIIT, Subex Systems, Futuresoft, R-systems, IndiaInfoline etc. and past Boards he has served on include Sasken Communications, Tejas Networks, Sharekhan, Nipuna, Deccanet, Real Image Media Technologies to name a few.
Mukul Kumar
Co-Founder - Vice President Engineering, PubMatic
Mukul Kumar is the Co-Founder & Senior Vice President Engineering at PubMatic. PubMatic, an online advertising company that helps premium publishers maximize their revenue and protect their brands online, has its Research & Development center in Pune. Mukul was previously the Director of Engineering at PANTA Systems, a high-performance computing startup. Previous to that he joined VERITAS India as the 13th employee and helped it grow to over 2,000 individuals. Mukul has filed for 14 patents in systems software, storage software, and application software. Mukul is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Mukul is very passionate about technology, and building world-class teams. His interests include architecting scalable and high-performance web-applications, handling and mining massive amounts of data and system & storage architecture
Vinay Gupta
Co Founder & CEO , Via
Vinay Gupta is the dynamic young visionary and founder of Via (formerly Flightraja).In the very first year of its inception Via has become the topmost Travel Company with a network of 17000 agents in 900+ cities of India. A professional turned entrepreneur, he has previously held prominent senior management positions with leading multinational companies in the United States. His previous assignments include consultancies in the Risk Management business with Credit Suisse, First Boston in New York and consultancies with Citibank NA, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and BMW.
Mukul Arora
Associate, Saif Partner
Mukul Arora joined SAIF in 2010 and is currently an Associate. Before joining SAIF, he was a consultant with McKinsey and Co., where he focused on infrastructure, energy and logistics sectors. His primary area of focus is early stage investments. Mukul was awarded Director’s medal at IIM Lucknow, and received his Engineering degree in Computers from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Sunny Ghosh
CEO, WOLF Frameworks
Sunny evangelized the business model embedded inside the WOLF Cloud Platform and Cofounded CollateBox. A subject matter expert in rolling out web based online platform/apps, he brings tremendous working experience with Enterprises/SMEs from more than 35 countries and is a seasoned start-up specialist.
Sandeep Aggarwal
Founder & CEO, ShopClues.com
Sandeep is the founder and CEO of ShopClues.com, India’s first and largest managed marketplace. He has 16 years of global experience in business operations, strategy and investment, focusing on Internet and technology. He is counted amongst leading Internet experts globally, and has regularly appeared on CNBC, Fox, ABC News and regularly quoted by Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes and other prominent media outlets. Prior to founding ShopClues.com, Sandeep was among the most renowned Internet analysts on Wall Street based out of Silicon Valley, providing research coverage on Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, Netflix, Priceline, Microsoft, MakeyMyTrip etc. Prior to being an analyst Sandeep worked in strategy roles with senior leadership team at Microsoft in Seattle and Schwab.com in San Francisco. Sandeep is chartered member of TiE Silicon Valley.
Ashutosh Lawania
Co-founder, Myntra.com
Ashutosh Lawania is co founder of Myntra.com one of the leading eCommerce companies in India.He also co founded Bytedge Solutions,a product development company specializing in SaaS.Mr.Lawania is an IIT Kanpur graduate.
Rahul Chowdhri
Director , Helion
Rahul has 13 years of experience in venture investing, strategy consulting, business planning and product management. Rahul has been with Helion since 2007. He serves on the board of YLG and helps manage investments in Hoopos, Global Talent Track and Vienova. Prior to joining Helion, Rahul was a Group Program Manager at Microsoft. Between 2005 and early 2007, Rahul led the Microsoft Dynamics product planning and Office Live program management team. Prior to this, Rahul was an Associate Director at marketRx Rahul holds an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a B. Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
Aurvind Lama
Director & Co Founder, Travelyaari.com
Aurvind Lama, one of the co-founders of Travelyaari.com, is a B Tech holder from IIIT Allahabad and has worked with Infosys for about two years. He hold an MBA degree from IIM Ahmedabad and has interned with the largest logistics company in the world - Deutsche Post World Net.
Bhavish Aggarwal
Co-Founder and CEO, OLACABS
Bhavish graduated with a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2008 and worked at Microsoft Research for 2 years after that. He had a wonderful time there, filing 2 patents and publishing 3 papers in International Journals. But the entrepreneurial itch was too hard to resist and he decided to quit his job in August 2010 and moved to Mumbai to start Ola in December 2010. With Ola, he aims to change the way we travel in and around our cities and revolutionize the personal transportation industry.
Rajinder Balaraman
Associate, Matrix Partners
Rajinder has lived and worked across India from Punjab to Kerala and has experienced the challenges of building scalable businesses and brands. Through his work with senior and field executives at Hindustan Unilever, he has developed consumer, brand and channel insights that have helped him understand the balance between risk taking and cost control. He is passionate about working with entrepreneurial teams through their growth journey and brings a roll-up-your sleeves attitude to work.
Rahul Khanna
Managing Director, Canaan India
Rahul Khanna has over fifteen years of investing and operating experience in ICT across India and the U.S.Rahul has played a key role in the development of the venture ecosystem in India and is well recognized as an active investor in several high growth companies.Rahul was the founding director of Clearstone Venture Advisorsand,and also acted as Area Director Asia-Pacific at Sonim Technologies.
Ashwin Raguraman
Vice President, IKP Investment Management Company
Ashwin Raguraman is currently Vice President, IKP Investment Management Company, an early stage venture capital fund supporting innovative start-ups in the ICT and Life Science & healthcare sectors. At the India Innovation Fund, Ashwin Raguraman is responsible for initiating deal flows, fundraising, evaluating start-ups for investment and supporting portfolio companies. In his earlier role at NASSCOM, Ashwin headed the Innovation Initiative and was entrusted with a mandate to increase innovation in the Indian Information Technology Industry. Apart from playing an instrumental role in the creation and operationalization of the India Innovation Fund, he was also responsible for the creation of a Special Interest Group on Embedded Systems and an Auto Component-Information Technology cluster. He also led the NASSCOM Innovation Awards program, which recognized the most innovative companies in the ICT sector. Ashwin has earlier played business and operational roles at Wipro Technologies and Maersk, Singapore. Ashwin has been a member of a Government committee, the SIP-EIT committee to evaluate start-ups for providing funding for International patents and the CII committee on Security and Imaging.
Anil Joshi
President, Mumbai Angels
Anil heads operations at MA. Anil’s professional experience includes involvement in corporate management functions in medium and large organizations, Investment in startups, Project management, Joint Ventures & business development and sits on board of 4 portfolio companies. He has worked with B.K. Birla group of companies (Textile div), Business Access India (Scandinavian Consultancy), Transasia Biomedica (leading Diagnostic co) and Artheon Group (diversified group). While at Mumbai Angels, Anil was instrumental in closing over 15 deals in Mumbai Angels Anil has bachelors degree of Engineering, PG in Management (Marketing) & PGDBM in Strategic Finance and Control .
Ajay Chandra
Ajay Chandra, CTO - Co-founder, Infibeam
Ajay Chandra is the CTO - Co founder and current VP of Brand Stores, Infibeam.com.With more than 9 years of experience in the industry,he is a big enthusiast of open source technologies.Prior to Infibeam he worked with Intel and Amazon.At present he leads technology at Infibeam which includes their new initiative Buildabazaar.com.With Buildabazaar and Infibeam Ajay hope to push the boundaries of online retail in India.
Kailash Katkar
Founder, MD and CEO, Quick Heal Technologies
Kailash Katkar is the founder, MD and CEO of Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd.He choose work which used his technical expertise to the maximum rather than formal school lessons. So he started repairing of Radios, TVs, and VCRs etc. Then he worked in Data Star Electronics as a Maintenance Engineer for ledger posting machines at various banks in Pune. In the year 1991 he took over this business & later diversified into AMCs of Computer maintenance & hardware peripherals company as CAT Computers Service. In the year 1994 his younger brother, Sanjay joined his business & they added a new dimension by developing solutions for Virus attacks in computers. This gave birth to a product "Quick Heal", which led to series of successes & inventions in the field of security & Anti virus. During this period he diverted from AMCs to Software Product sales (Quick Heal) & focused on creating awareness in domestic market. Mr. Katkar is innovative, creative & he is a step ahead in exploring new business opportunities. He continued expanding from Pune to different cities across India. As a founder of Quick Heal Technologies, is responsible for facilitating overall business & also setting up company’s strategic vision & mission. Now Quick Heal is acknowledged brand in Software security & anti virus domain. Today Quick Heal is No.1 Antivirus in the Indian Anti Virus Market & has presence in more than 50 countries globally.
Manav Garg
CEO & Founder, Eka Software Solutions
Manav Garg is the CEO and Founder of Eka Software Solutions. Besides the overall responsibility of managing Eka, Manav oversees the areas of business strategy and corporate finance.Under his leadership, Eka has won the NASSCOM Innovation 2010 Award under the “Best Market Facing Innovation – Business Model & Business Process” category Award, making this the fifth Industry Recognition that it has received for the year. Manav graduated as an engineer from REC (Regional Engineering College) Jalandhar, and followed this by an MBA from IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade), Delhi.
Ravindra Krishnappa
., India Angel Network
With over 22 years of professional working experience, Ravi comes with a diverse profile & a broad skill-set. While he holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, over time, he has worked in consulting roles across industry verticals. He believes that he is a leader with the following personal traits. 15 years of serial entrepreneurship experience with 3 successful startups & exits. Strategic consulting experience having been on executive boards in a number of companies. International market experience having worked in the US, UK and Switzerland. Strong ability to see the big-picture while being able to look at grassroots having built large teams in a hands-on model
Sangeeta Patni
Co-founder and President, Extensio Software
Sangeeta, an accomplished technology and business leader, has more than 25 years of experience in building, selling and deploying enterprise software. After spending 15 years in Corporate IT, she started her entrepreneurial journey in the year 2000, when she left her plum position as a Chief Information Officer of Eicher Motors, to co-found Extensio Software, Inc, a company focused on making enterprise information available on every interface and every user. In Extensio, she has created a technology company that has built world-class enterprise software products that run in globally renowned companies such as ACC, Ambuja Cement, Rediff.com., Dewan Housing, and Johnson and Johnson.
Manish Kumar B
Assistant Vice President, KITVEN Funds
Manish Kumar B is currently working as Asst. Vice President with KITVEN Funds (Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Funds). Rich expertise of more than 10 years in VC investments covering the entire gamut right from deal sourcing, scrutinizing, due diligence, feasibility assessment, board representation to exits. Has represented in 5 assisted units at Board level and has undertaken responsibility on behalf of KITVEN Funds. He has managed successfully Rs.15.00 Crore VC Fund started in 1998-99, and investments made to the tune of Rs.17.56 Crore in 17 units. Some of the key investments include RelQ Sofware, Logix Microsystems, Indegene Life Systems, ILANTUS Technologies, ECAD Technologies, Telibrahma, Comat, Brickwork, Inknowtech, 24x7 Learning etc. Currently managing KITVEN Fund – 2 with investible corpus of Rs.26.50 Crore and focused sectors include Information Technology, Bio Technology and other knowledge industries. He has already invested in 3 units and currently appraising 2 more for investments. Both the Funds are being managed by him and the CEO). He is shortly launching 3 new VC Funds (VC Fund for SME sector, Exclusive VC Fund for Biotech & Semiconductor industries).
Sumir Verma
Managing Director, Merisis Capital Advisors
Sumir Verma comes with over 15 years of experience in strategy consulting, private equity and mergers and acquisitions besides holding operational leadership roles with a turnaround challenge. Prior to Merisis, Sumir was an Equity Shareholder and Director at Meghraj SP Corporate Finance Pvt Ltd., a midmarket focused investment banking advisory firm providing capital syndication and M&A advisory services. At Meghraj SP, he headed the Technology, Real Estate and Clean Technology verticals, and also executed deals in other sectors like business services, healthcare, education and textiles. Prior to investment banking, he worked with Ramesh Vangal, a well-known entrepreneur (2002-2005) in At India, a venture firm, Value Bridge Services, a data mining company focused on consumer products and telecom verticals, and Cambridge Solutions, a listed IT and BPO company that grew through acquisitions. He performed various roles from starting the data mining company to helping turn around acquired IT companies. During this period, he was based out of Bangalore and the UK.
Barath Shankar Subramanian,
Senior Analyst, Accel Partners
Barath Shankar joined Accel India in January 2012 as a Senior Analyst. Before joining Accel, Barath Shankar was a Senior Consultant at Frost & Sullivan where he worked on market research and strategy consulting projects in the healthcare and life-sciences industries for over seven years across Asia, North America, and Europe.
Venkatesh Peddi
Assistant Vice President, IDG Ventures India
Venkatesh has over 9 years of industry experience including over 3 years of venture investing experience. Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, Venkatesh was Deputy Vice President at Reliance Venture Asset Management - the corporate venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group. Venkatesh was involved in executing multiple end-to-end investments and was a board member at Gradatim IT Ventures and a board observer at Suvidhaa Infoserve and Pelago Inc. Venkatesh was earlier an Account Manager in Investment Banking division of Adventity, a leading KPO player, where he advised deal teams of leading investment banks at various deal stages. Venkatesh later moved to Adventity Inc., New York, to take up roles involving close client interaction, while being promoted on a fast track basis from an Analyst to Manager within 10 months. Prior to Adventity, as Assistant Manager at Blue Star Infotech, Venkatesh helped in structuring deals and M&A activities of the firm. Venkatesh is an active CFA charterholder from the CFA institute, USA and holds a Bachelors degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a Masters degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), where he was consistently among the top 10 candidates registered for the program.
Deependra Moitra
., India Angel Network
Deependra Moitra is a strategy & innovation consultant and an active mentor/advisor to several entrepreneurial ventures. He consults with industrial and government organizations globally and his clients include leading multinational corporations, new high technology ventures, and private equity firms spread across North America, Europe, and Asia. He has two decades of experience with a proven track record in establishing and leading high performance organizations, incubating business growth opportunities, and managing global R&D footprints. He is also a frequent speaker at major industry forums and conferences.
Amitabh Shrivastava
., India Angel Network
Amitabh Shrivastava runs an angel stage investment firm called Rhombus Investments, since 2007. Rhombus Investments has a diverse portfolio of investments, ranging from IT, ITES, Robotic Solutions, Medical Diagnostics, HR, Hospitality and Real Estate. Currently, Amitabh is on the board of some of these companies in exec and in non-exec capacities. Apart from making investments, Amitabh works with the management teams of his investee companies to strategize and develop unique competitive advantage in the market. Amitabh actively looks for new investments and M&A opportunities, and has access to vast network of co-investors, buyers of business, solution providers, human capital, etc. Prior to 2007, Amitabh held senior positions with HCL, Infosys, and Xansa.
Nagaraja Prakasam
., India Angel Network
Nagaraja Prakasam holds more than 19 years of experience in the software industry including 15 years in a variety of management roles in the USA and in India at CDC Software. As Managing Director of CDC Software SSEA, he is responsible for sales and managing the India Centre of Excellence in Bangalore, the largest development and support centre for CDC Software’s enterprise software product lines. By executing innovative initiatives around people, process and technology, CDC Software India has established itself as the exemplary model of excellence in development and operations for CDC Software’s global infrastructure.
Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi
., India Angel Network
I.Vijaya Kumar (known as IVK) is Chief Innovation Officer of INK which is an organization focused on innovation from young economies of the world. He drives INK’s innovation and technology strategy to inspire ideas and incubate projects of both business and social nature and showcase them on a global arena. Prior to joining INK, he was CTO of Wipro’s IT businesses covering Wipro Technologies, Wipro Infotech and Wipro BPO.He has been with ICT industry for the last 24 plus years and is one of the leading experts in innovation management and advanced technologies incubation in India.
Rutvik Doshi
Principal, Inventus (India) Advisors
Rutvik joined Inventus after 12 years of successful operating roles in both India and the U.S. Rutvik has participated in India&rsquot;s fast emerging internet ecosystem since 2007, first with Google-India where he launched several products including Voice Search, Google Mobile App, SMS Channels and managed Google News globally, and most recently as the CEO of ecommerce startup Taggle in Bangalore. Before Google he spent 6 years in the U.S. building internet management software for CA Technologies and a startup.
Nitin Agarwal
Co-founder & CTo, Yebhi.com
A successful entrepreneur who has successfully founded Brainvisa in the field of Learning Content and Systems in India with Business across United States, UK, Australia and Middle East. He has Over 10 years of experience in Senior Management and Leadership roles. Yebhi.com is the fastest growing company in lifestyle category in India.
Vivek Kulkarni
Chairman, Brickwork India
Vivek has over 30 years of experience in Business and Government. He is the Founder Managing Director of Brickwork Ratings, a SEBI registered credit rating agency. He is the Chairman and CEO of Brickwork India, a knowledge process outsourcing company in Bangalore, whose clients include large Fortune 500 firms, investment bankers, management consultants, senators, hedge funds, healthcare professionals, etc. He is the visiting faculty for finance at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.