Speaker Bio:  

Kunwar Sachdev
Founder and Managing Director, Su-Kam
When sachdev created Su-kam, the power back-up industry in India was completely unorganized, characterized by poor product quality and low technology. Sachdev first built a foundation of technology, then took a creative leap, guided by his inherent understanding of the consumer’s needs. Today, the company is the unquestioned market leader and Sachdev is genuinely admired for his passion, vision and innovation. Sachdev’s early life was marked by a burning desire to become a successful entrepreneur. He first graduated with Honours in Mathematical Statistics, then completed his Bachelors degree in Law, both from the University of Delhi. He first made a foray in the distribution of cable TV connections, but was soon immersed in understanding how an inverter works. He taught himself physics, delved deep into the technology behind the idea of power back-up, spent countless days with his engineers and ended up as an expert himself. Instead of slavishly imitating products from overseas, Sachdev chose to carve his own path, with innovation as his mantra. He set up a vibrant R&D department, which has produced product after product that his competitors now imitate. He was an early champion of green technologies, having begun research into solar solutions long before anyone else. With a string of patents and awards behind him, Sachdev has proved that a commitment to technology, dreaming big and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge can be a potent mix for enduring success.
T C Meenakshisundaram
Founder, Managing Director, IDG Ventures India
TCM has over 26 years of operations experience including 7 years of venture investing experience.Earlier, as a member of Walden International&rsquot;s India investment team, TCM has worked on investments in companies such as Mindtree Consulting, Venture Infotek, Jobstreet and Webvisions, across a range of technology sectors. He was a board member at Jobstreet India and Webvisions India. He was board observer in MindTree Consulting and Venture Infotek.Prior to co-founding IDG Ventures India, TCM served as Chief Financial Officer and President - Corporate Services at Venture Infotek, a leading payments processing company in India. Prior to Walden International, TCM has worked for 14 years at Wipro where he last served as General Manager - eCommerce Division.TCM is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Chennai. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification.
Mohit Bhatnagar
Managing Director, Sequoia Capital
Mohit is currently a Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India and serves on the board of Prizm Payments, Comviva, Ujjivan Microfinance, IMI Mobile , Ideacts, Micromax Mobile & One Assist. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Mohit served as the Senior Vice President at Bharti Airtel where he helped scale the business from a few states operation into a leading national wireless carrier. Earlier, Mohit co-founded Bright pod, a wireless start-up in the US, by orchestrating a spin off from Ericsson Mobile Systems. Mohit has received an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill and an MSEE from Virginia Tech.
Ritesh Banglani
Vice President, Helion Ventures
Ritesh Banglani has 11 years of experience in venture capital, business planning, product management and field operation roles in India and abroad.Prior to joining Helion in 2010, Ritesh was a Vice President at IDG Ventures India, where he focused on early stage investments in internet, mobile and digital media businesses. He was a director on the board of Ozone Media, and an observer on the board of Kreeda Games.Prior to this, Ritesh was a Product Manager at Adobe Systems, where he managed the Shockwave and Contribute product lines, and focused on developing new monetization models for digital media platforms. Previously he managed the mobile games business of July Systems, a venture-funded mobile VAS company, and deployed popular mobile games offerings with US and European mobile operators.Between 1999 and 2003, Ritesh held various field operation roles with Synopsys Inc. in India, Singapore and Europe.Ritesh holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from INSEAD. He serves as Guest Faculty at IIM Bangalore, where he teaches Innovation Strategy.
Gaurav Saraf
Director, Epiphany Ventures
Gaurav launched his fund, Epiphany Ventures, focused on investing in early stage companies in late 2008.He started his career working as a consultant at Diamond Technology Partners Inc. (DTPI), a strategy consulting company, headquartered in Chicago. At DTPI, Gaurav gained experience in a wide range of disciplines and sectors, including retail, e-commerce, knowledge management, merger integrations, etc.After his return to India, in 2004, Gaurav founded a business in the mining sector. He exited the business through a trade sale in 2007. He also serves as the Vice-President, M&A for the Facor Group, which has a turnover of over $250 million. Most recently, he has been actively involved in guiding Epiphany&rsquot;s portfolio companies: iLevel Solutions, a software company catering to large financial institutions, in which he has co-invested with Blackstone - and MotorExchange - an online auto auction and content business, which has sold Rs. 1000 cr worth of automobiles in its first year of operations.Gaurav is a Tie Charter Member, has a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania, and M.Sc in Finance from City University, London.
Anshoo Sharma
Senior Associate, Light Speed
Anshoo joined Lightspeed Advisory Services India in 2009 and brings eight years of operating and consulting experience to his role advising the firm’s investment activities in India. Prior to Lightspeed, Anshoo was a Senior Consultant at Bain & Company in Boston and New Delhi. While at Bain, Anshoo advised corporates on growth strategy, customer segmentation, go-to-market and performance improvement with a focus on the retail, telecom and IT sectors. At Bain, Anshoo also extensively advised private equity clients on the business diligence of targets in a wide range of industries in India including education, media, industrials, infrastructure, airlines and financial services. Prior to Bain, Anshoo worked in telecom product development at Motorola and Hughes Software in India, where his focus was on converged/next-generation networks. Anshoo holds an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Delhi University.
Sanjay Purohit
Founder Director, iProf
Sanjay is an expert in business innovation and process transformation and has extensive experience of leading transformation projects as CEO of companies like Danriver, Best and Baker, Colwell and Salmon in USA. He has experience in technology , textiles and outsourcing services industries.Prior to becoming CEO of iProf, Sanjay was managing director with New York based firm LMCO. He has remained President and CEO of Dan River Inc. Dan River’s transformation has been featured in several business periodicals and is a University of North Carolina Business School case study. Prior to Dan River, Sanjay was CEO of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies, Colwell-Salmon Inc & Caretel.Earlier in his career, Sanjay has worked as senior executive with AT&T Wireless and Motorola when they entered in India and was part of founding team at IT BPO start-up, Epicenter Technologies. His first job was as an IAS officer. Sanjay is an MBA (Gold Medalist) from IIM, Ahmedabad, and also holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Mumbai. He has worked in USA, India and Singapore
Kalpesh Desai
Founder and CEO, Agile Financial Technologies
Kalpesh Desai is the founder and CEO of Agile Financial Technologies, a leading technology company providing Software Products and Technology Services for the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services & Insurance) industry.He formed Agile FT by bringing together best-of-breed strategic software products and cutting-edge technology servicesand hence providing a holistic solution to leading financial players. Kalpesh has over two decades of experience in spearheading technology companies to achieve and sustain a position of market leadership and organic growth. He has earned a reputation of creating and building successful, scalable enterprises by defining and converting corporate vision into strategic intent and coordinated action. At a young age, he founded Xmediaries - a new economy software company that developed a hugely successful enterprise relationship management product, CrossRoads. Within a year, his venture was recognized and ranked by IDC as amongst the top 10 CRM vendors in the MENA region in 2001. After acquiring a footprint of over 35 clients and a base in India, UAE and South Africa, he sold Xmediariesto 3i Infotech. Prior to Xmediaries, Kalpesh was the Chief Operating Officer of Insyst where he drove a product led sales strategy globally for their ERP & Insurance products, creating a significant customer footprint in the US, M.E., Africa and APAC.
Sanjay Sinha
Cofounder,chairman and MD, Leeway Logistic
In a career spanning more than 33 years Sanjay Sinha has worked with large Indian and Multinational companies Including long stints with Xerox Inda Ltd.and Mahindra Group.Sanjay Sinha has launched a new venture, Leeway Logistics Limited, a 3PL service provider aiming to serve the growing Supply Chain and Logistics requirements of Indian and global customers based in India.He is a Post Graduate in Accounts and Business Administration from University of Delhi, India.He has attended Management Development Programs and Leadership for Top Management Program in Harvard Business School, IIM Ahmedabad and ISB Hyderabad.He has also been a Honorary Faculty for Supply Chain & Logistics courses at SP Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai
Jagdish Mitra
CEO, Canvasm
Jagdish Mitra is the CEO of CanvasM, a specialized TechMahindra unit.Jagdish has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of business development, IT project management and marketing in the global information services market. Prior to CanvasM he was actively involved in building several strategic relationships and business with key telecom accounts worldwide for TechMahindra. His telecom expertise spans design, development and domain knowledge of IT systems for the telecommunications industry. Prior to his present role, Jagdish led the Global Marketing and Corporate Communications team in Tech Mahindra.He holds a masters degree in Computer Applications from Birla Institute of Technology and thereafter pursued Masters in Business Administration from the University of London. Under his leadership, CanvasM was awarded the “Best Start-Up Company” at the Mobile Content Awards ’08 held in London from a list of over 150 entries in various categories from companies across the globe. Under his leadership, CanvasM was awarded the “Best Start-Up Company” at the Mobile Content Awards ’08 held in London from a list of over 150 entries in various categories from companies across the globe. CanvasM won a National Telecom Award (2011) for "Excellence in Innovation with Rural Telecom Focus” and had won honors at Aegis Graham Bell Award ceremony.
Vikhyat S
Co Founder, Groffr.com
Vikhyat is the co-founder of GrOffr.com and Verkko.in. Groffr.com is the first group buying site internationally to focus on planned purchases like real estate, cars, heavy white goods etc and has been funded by the Indian Angel Network. Verkko.in is a cluster of closed-community alumni networks and acts as a pseudo job portal for premium management institute graduates. He has spent 4 years funding real estate companies (including residential, commercial and warehousing) while he was a part of Kotak Real Estate Private Equity Fund (an $ 800mn domestic and international fund dedicated to real estate venture capital) He is a computer science graduate with a patent and 7 published papers (international journals) in his name. He is also an MBA from IIM Kozhikode.
Kiran Kumar
CEO and Cofounder, Adepto Solutions
As the Co-founder & CEO Kiran’s mandate is to drive design, develop, and market Adepto’s social applications. He has over 10 years experience in Internet Sales, Marketing, and Communications. He has an MBA from Liverpool Business School (’02) and an ‘Executive Orientation in Entrepreneurship’ from Chicago Booth (’09).Kiran’s Research project in the MBA program was to identify overseas markets and develop an entry strategy for Synergy Vision; an India based visual communications firm.Prior to founding Adepto Kiran has worked in organisations like Google India, Synergy Vision and e wonders
Abhishek Sinha
CEO and Cofounder, Eko
Abhishek is Co-founder & CEO of Eko India Financial Services Private Limited.He believes in the creation of wealth and degrees of freedom. After a short stint in the telecom division of Satyam, he discovered that his true calling was entrepreneurship. He co-founded Six DEE Telecom Solutions, a telecom value added services company in 2002. In February 2007, Abhishek exited Six DEE to pursue his vision to promote mobile phones as a financial identity for people at the bottom of the pyramid. He was convinced that the simplest of mobile phones could deliver secure financial transactions to customers who had no access to formal financial services. His passion for simplicity of user experience and zeal for democratizing access, led to the development of the basic principles on which Eko is based. These ideas were validated when he won the TIE-Canaan Entrepreneurial Challenge, 2006.Eko is “Business Correspondent” partner to State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.He holds a BE in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.
Shailesh Vickram Singh
., Seedfund
Shailesh Vickram Singh has over 15 years of experience in investing in private equity / venture capital investing, and in business operations and entrepreneurship.He brings a strong entrepreneurial and operations perspective to investments having co-founded one startup in community space in early 2000 from where the team made a successful exit in 2003 and helped create another startup in agricultural commodities spaces which was acquired by a media conglomerate in 2005.He has worked with 2i Capital ( A mid market Private Equity Growth Fund), Unit Trust of India ( the largest investment manager in India) and Gujarat Venture Finance Limited ( investors include CDC and World Bank) and was involved with investments in logistics, technology, telecommunications, media, and internet companies. Prior to his MBA, Shailesh had worked for four years in manufacturing (Heavy Engineering and Machining) with Tata Motors and ATV.Shailesh is a B.Tech in Production Engineering from G.B. Pant University, Nainital, and holds an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. He is on the advisory board of MICA’s (Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad) Com-Cubator program.
Anisha Singh
Cofounder and CEO, Mydala.com
Anisha is Founder and CEO of mydala.com, the pioneer and leader in the social commerce/group buying space in India. Prior to that, she was Founder and CEO of Kinis (Software) Solutions, providing customized e-learning solutions to clients across United States and India. Anisha´s career began on Capitol Hill where she worked closely with National Women´s Business Association in Washington D.C and then Cenra Software in Boston . She is currently of the board Indus Women Entrepreneurs, a platform for South Asian women leaders in the US. Apart from successfully planning and directing initiatives for mydala, Anisha is also an active participant in various conferences across US and India. Anisha has successfully written and presented a detailed paper on "Training and Workforce Planning in Construction Industry Through E-learning and IT Management Systems,"at INCITE - ITCSED , World Conference on IT in Design & Construction held at New Delhi, India. Anisha has been featured on CNBC – TV 18´s ´Young Turks´ and ET Now´s Starting Up. She has also been featured in prominent newspapers like Asian Age, Mail Today, Economic Times and The Hindu and publications as Femina, Business World, Business Today and Inc. Anisha has a Masters degree in political communication, as well as an MBA in Information Systems from American University in Washington DC.
Yogesh Bansal
Founder and CEO, ApnaCircle.com
Yogesh is a serial entrepreneur who founded couple of startups.He shifted to India in the year 2006 and started working on ApnaCircle.com one and only Business and Career Networking Site in India He is one of the main promoters and director of the company and handles all operations of the company in India.Yogesh completed his MBA from University of North Carolina in 1997 and served with Mckesson Inc. USA