Anjali Bansal

Anjali Bansal is the Founding Partner of Avaana Capital, which manages Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund - investing in technology and innovation-led start-ups catalysing climate solutions and sustainability and delivering exponential returns. Previously, Anjali has been the Non-Executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, appointed by the Government of India to steer the resolution of the stressed bank, eventually leading to a merger with the Bank of Baroda. Prior to that, Anjali was a Global Partner and Managing Director with TPG Growth PE, responsible for India, SE Asia, Africa and the Middle East. She started her career as a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Co. in New York.

Anjali has invested in and mentored various successful start-ups including Delhivery, Urban Company, Darwinbox, Nykaa and Lenskart. She also serves as an independent non-executive director on several leading boards including Tata Power (Chair, Sustainability Committee), Nestle (Member, CSR and Sustainability Committee), and Piramal Enterprises, and chairs the “Climate Council” within Indian Venture Capital Association. She has previously chaired the India board of Women's World Banking, a leading global livelihood-promoting institution and been a board member at GSK Pharma, Siemens, Voltas and Bata.

Anjali is a Member of the Niti Aayog Evolution Review Committee, India’s premier policy think tank chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. She has been appointed on the Expert Advisory Committee for the Start Up India Seed Fund Scheme announced by the Honourable Prime Minister. She is also a member of the Advisory Council for the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the world’s first open access infrastructure for digital commerce and serves on the CII National Committee on Corporate Governance. She has previously served as President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, and has co-founded and chaired the FICCI Center for Corporate Governance program for Women on Corporate Boards. She is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and a charter member of TiE. She has been listed as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Indian Business” by India’s leading publications, Business Today, Fortune India and Forbes India.

Ankit Bengani

Ankit is the Principal & Director at Marwar Capital, where he leads the global investment efforts for the family. Marwar Capital is the single-family investment office of the Bengani Group and as a family office it’s been investing into Indian alternatives markets since 1998 and since 2009 have been gradually investing in funds selectively in US & Asian markets. The family owned business conglomerate has a continued history of over a century in conducting businesses across various sectors worldwide, while adhering to the highest standards of trust, ethics & integrity. Prior to Marwar, Ankit spent over 14 years gaining knowledge in the financial & capital markets by working with firms like Samena Capital as head of global fund raising, Motilal Oswal as head of international business and Kotak Investment Banking. Ankit holds a Finance degree from H. R. College of Commerce, Mumbai and post-graduate degree in Business Management from University of Mumbai. Ankit is been active in various social & philanthropic interests of the family, while also assisting in the education and healthcare focussed welfare activities in rural Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Dr. Aarti Gupta

Anand Unnikrishnan

Anand Unnikrishnan Managing Partner - Fund of FundsAnand has over two decades of experience across India and Australia in areas such as investment management, finance and consulting, of which, 12+ years have been in investment management in India. Through his career, Anand has been involved in several direct and fund investments in sectors such as roads, power, healthcare, renewable energy and real estate.He joined NIIF in 2018 and is currently the Managing Partner for NIIF’s Fund of Funds. At NIIF, he is responsible for developing and executing the strategy of the NIIF Fund of Funds, which is diversified fund investing into various sectors and strategies through third party fund managers. Prior to joining NIIF in March 2018, Anand was a senior member of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) team in India for about 10 years. He was part of the core team that established MIRA’s infrastructure funds management business in India in 2008. During his tenure with MIRA, in addition to his involvement with investments and his role on the Investment Committee of the India dedicated fund, Anand held many roles including head of finance, head of operations and an active role in fundraising for MIRA’s India fund and a broader Asia fund. Before MIRA, Anand worked with KPMG for over seven years in India and Australia, in the audit and financial advisory services divisions. During this period, Anand primarily worked with large clients primarily in the consumer, industrials, pharma and media and entertainment sectors. In the early part of his career, Anand has also worked with Universal Music Group in Mumbai as their Finance Manager for the India business. Anand holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is an Indian Chartered Accountant. He has also completed his Certified Public Accountancy (US).

Ashish Kumar

Ashish Kumar Co-founder & General Partner Fundamentum Ashish is a Founding Member of Fundamentum Advisors, the Asset Management Company that manages Fundamentum Fund(s). He has been with Fundamentum since inception and leveraging his understanding of entrepreneurial journey, he has helped the fund build a high quality portfolio with two unicorns. Ashish has over 20 years of experience as a technologist, serial tech entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist. He has multi-country exposure and has worked in varied sized companies, spanning three countries (USA, India and Singapore) and a multitude of industry segments. At Fundamentum, Ashish leads the fund raise and the investment process. He continues to lead the fund’s successful investment strategy of investing in start-ups with strong fundamentals, exceptional entrepreneurs and also spends time on identifying new investable areas and sectors for the Firm to invest into. He wants to help build businesses that have the potential to grow into behemoths. Ashish has screened over 500 deals at Fundamentum and has built a strong network within Indian start-up ecosystem. His board experience include Pharmeasy (Unicorn), Spinny (Unicorn), Fareye, TravelTriangle. He has been an active participant in business building of these companies and helped founders navigate inflection points while scaling business. With successful deployment of Fund I, delivering superior returns, Ashish has led the fund raise process for Fund II. The fund was oversubscribed and raised $227 MM. Prior to Fundamentum, Ashish used to invest his personal capital in small to mid-sized public market companies as well as promising technology start-ups in an Angel capacity. His Angel portfolio is at a 7X return currently. With his deep interest in all things digital, coupled with hands-on experience in business and finance, Ashish has founded several successful companies. As an Entrepreneur, Ashish co-founded 4 Technology / Technology-Assisted start-ups and raised money for 2 start-ups, while exiting from 2 start-ups profitably. The start-ups were of different models serving different markets – Enterprise / B2B and B2C. He became skilled at multiple stages of business - ideation, conceptualization, scaling and sustaining. As a Founder/CEO of global software services company, he grew it to a multi-million-dollar revenue organization worldwide. Ashish holds a degree in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur.

Dave Richards

A tech entrepreneur for 20 years and a scaler for 15 years in the ‘Global South, Dave Richards, Managing Partner at Capria Ventures, is an early-growth investor which includes strategic investments in local early-stage VC funds in Global South and is passionate to mentor startup CEOs and emerging GPs.

He co-founded Capria in 2012, Unitus Ventures in 2005 and quickly grew into one of South/Southeast Asia’s most experienced global investors. As a Managing Partner, his responsibilities currently include investment sourcing and diligence, portfolio management, fundraising and investor relations, and oversight of finance, business operations, compliance and administration.

Dave brings to Capria deep experience as an entrepreneur, executive, and global early-stage and early-growth venture capital investor. At Capria, he has been on the leadership team launching and operating 2 early-stage India venture funds (under Unitus Ventures brand), and the Capria GP Accelerator and Capria Fund, investing in 40+ early-stage and early-growth funds and tech companies across the global south in sectors including fintech, edtech, logistics, healthtech, agtech, jobtech and consumer.

Dave has constructed a robust position in the Global South startup and VC ecosystem through his continuous work to boost impact. His entrepreneurial experience and success have led him to discover and support many early-stage ventures in the Southeast Asia markets which are front-runners in creating impact-led solutions in the region.  Early in his career, Dave had developed and led multiple high-growth technology businesses at RealNetworks, Sybase and Symantec from startup to multiple hundred million dollar global enterprises. He is a Partner with Social Venture Partners Seattle and co-founder of the SVP Fast Pitch startup impact angel fund.