Alternative investors, who poured in record sums in India last year despite macroeconomic headwinds, have shown signs of resilience in 2020 even as the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown shook the economy to its roots and devastated vast chunks of local businesses.
Overall private equity and venture capital deal-making did slide early on during the lockdown but quickly stabilized thanks to a pick-up in seed-stage funding of startups and big-ticket PE transactions. The total deal value is pegged at $35 billion in the first 10 months of the year and the overall tally may well match, if not top, last year’s record.
To be sure, this was skewed by a string of large deals involving Reliance Industries Ltd. Private equity investment outside of Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail has slid, but stats collated by VCCEdge suggest that the long-term slide in PE deal volumes may have bottomed out. On the other side, while VCs are yet to loosen the purse strings, seed-stage investors are opening up after the blip. Private investors including angels, VCs and PE firms are back to sewing a new deal every eight hours, just a tad slower than the peak when a deal was struck every six hours!
This augurs well for private investments as investors set course for the next wave of growth capital funding and buyout firms find a bigger window of opportunity, especially for distressed and special situations deals. And then there is a bevy of VCs who don’t want to miss out on the next big startup idea as the count of unicorns keeps rising.
For Limited Partners (LPs), who have been historically grappling with returns and exits, the focus shifted to seeing how their general partners (GPs) respond to the shock, manage their portfolio and add value to their existing investees to help them ride out the storm. While several LPs participated in direct big-ticket deals, they also backed a few local GPs. As many as six VC funds hit first close and a similar number hit final close, including some marquee names. However, the fundraising picture for GPs of PE firms has been less rosy at a time when dozens of them are on the road.
Meanwhile, LPs are having to deal with new-age due diligence models and regulatory norms. They are also trying to align better their interests with GPs over aspects like treatment of expenses, waterfall structures, key-person clauses, quantifying and measuring responsible investment practices, and more frequent and detailed disclosures. On the flip side, GPs are trying to rebalance their LP base and targeting more local investors while creating unified structures to manage offshore and domestic investors. They also have to deal with liquidity in the system that has not allowed an appropriate correction in valuations despite the shock to the business environment.
To discuss the evolving nature of the LP-GP relationship and how the overall alternative investor class is tackling the challenges, VCCircle is delighted to announce the 12th edition of its flagship thought conclave—the Limited Partners Summit 2021. It would bring together leading global and domestic LPs, GPs, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, lawyers and other leaders from the deals ecosystem to look at the alternative investment opportunity in India. The summit will be spread across two days- February 18-19, 2021 on a virtual platform with live streaming for attendees.
VCCircle Limited Partners Summit - A Glimpse
By Jaideep Mehta, CEO, Mosaic Digital
The pandemic has changed the way LPs and GPs interact and go about investing money. Has the pandemic made LPs reset asset allocation for alternatives? How are they rebalancing their India investment strategy between direct, co-investments and platform pieces? Are there steps to have more frequent and detailed disclosures as well as approval mechanisms on investments with LPs? What is the industry view on additional responsibility on investment committees by SEBI?
Speakers:
Jacob Chiu, Managing Director, HQ Capital Asia Limited
Chris Loh, Managing Partner, Axiom Asia Private Capital
Puneet Nanda, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Venture
Moderator:
Jaideep Mehta, CEO, Mosaic Digital
By Michael Fernandes, Partner, Leapfrog Investments
Global Fund Manager of the Year
Indian Fund Manager of the Year
Travel and communication—seen as critical to assess a potential investment—was the first casualty of the lockdown and social distancing. But new models and tools of due diligence have come to the fore. How are LPs relooking at due diligence on GPs and past portfolios? How are GPs conducting more stringent diligence on potential investees? With portable cameras for on-site visits, cloud-based data rooms and digitised documents, are the systems robust to allay data security and cybercrime concerns? What are the emerging best practices?
Speakers:
Sunil Mishra, Partner, Adams Street Partners
Ajit Kumar, Managing Director, Evolvence India Fund
Dominic Goh, Principal, Harbourvest
Rohan Kalia, Account Manager - Alternative Investments, SS&C Intralinks
Moderator: Alok Verma, Senior Strategy Leader and Partner, Grant Thornton
Private Equity investing in India has faced unique challenges associated with complex regulatory environment, currency depreciation, management incentives and lengthier exit timeframes. The fireside discussion explores some mechanisms to mitigate these risks.
Shalil Gupta, CBO, Mosaic Digital in conversation with Amit R. Krishnan, Co-Founder & Principal, FidelisWorld Group
Most GPs profess their capabilities of being more than someone with the moneybags. The pandemic and its shock to businesses, both at the front end with demand and at the backend in terms of operations, have tested management skill sets of portfolio companies. How do GPs and LPs in the direct investments helping portfolio firms navigate the pandemic? Will operational partners and advisors become a more critical part of the alternative investment ecosystem?
Speakers:
Florian Kohler, Managing Director - Private Equity, OBVIAM
Mohit Batra, Executive Director, ICICI Venture
Michael Liu, Managing Director, Portfolio Advisors (Hong Kong) Limited
Moderator:
Shivani Bhasin Sachdeva, Founder and CEO, India Alternatives Investments
Over time LPs have become more comfortable investing in the country directly. They have come as direct investors, bought out firms and created platforms for deeper engagement in specific sectors. What are the sectoral sweet spots for LPs? Which areas look more promising in a post-pandemic world?
Speakers:
Arjun Anand, Executive Director, Verlinvest
Neha Grover, South Asia Regional Lead - Private Equity, IFC
Moderator: Ranjani Raghavan, Associate Editor, VCCircle
By Jaideep Mehta, CEO, Mosaic Digital
By Sujoy Bose, MD & CEO, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF)
Domestic institutional investors are juggling various asset classes. The historical evidence doesn't make for a good reading of returns for domestic LPs. How can GPs unlock a wider pool of domestic institutional investors? How can alternatives be sold as a product to different sets- insurers, banks, corporates, pension funds and others - as a risk diversification asset class?
Speakers:
Satrajit Bhattacharya, Treasury, HDFC Ltd.
Gopal Jain, Managing Partner and Co-founder, Gaja Capital
Moderator:
Joseph Rai, Special Correspondent, VCCircle
Domestic family offices have got their early taste for alternatives. While private equity and venture capital came as a strong competitor to the traditional preference for real estate, the ease of investment process and liquidity have made capital markets a clear favourite. Is the risk-reward ratio of alternatives correctly aligned to attract family offices?
Speakers:
Murali Krishna V, Investment Head, Kolte-Patil Family Office
Jai Rupani, Chief Investment Officer, Dinesh Hinduja Family Office
Vishesh Narang, Head Of Family Office, UKPI (Promoter of Berger Paints India Group)
Moderator: Narinder Kapur, Correspondent, VCCircle
By Kanchan Jain, MD & Head of India Credit, Baring Private Equity Asia
VCs, both first-time fund managers as also legacy fund houses, have been more successful in attracting LP money than their PE brethren. What’s working for VCs? Does the small ticket size filters LPs’ direct investment appetite in favour of the blind pool and co-investment strategy for startups? Is the adverse impact of the recent clampdown on money flow from China more rhetorical than real? How are VCs building the exit pipeline with an eye on public markets and are special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs) the way forward?
Speakers:
Sateesh Andra, MD, Endiya Partners
Sachin Bid, Fund Manager- Venture Capital, Nippon India Alternative Investments
Moderator: Joseph Rai, Special Correspondent, VCCircle
Jacob Chiu is a Managing Director responsible for Asian PE manager research and co-investments for HQ Capital, a leading global independent alternative investment manager with $10 billion AUM in private equity and real estate. Previously, he was a Partner with FLAG Squadron Asia; a Managing Director with Search Investment Group; and held senior operating and financial roles with Glaxo, Kraft and TigerPack. He holds an MSc in Financial Management from the University of London.
Chris Loh is a Managing Partner at Axiom Asia (www.axiomasia.com) which manages US$7 billion focused on private equity and venture capital investments in Asia. Axiom Asia was established in 2006 and has five flagship funds under management. The investment team consists of 18 professionals all based in Asia.
Chris is responsible for Axiom’s venture capital investments and also PE/VC investments in India.
He had nine years of private equity experience with GIC Special Investments and worked for seven years as an engineer at DSO National Laboratories.
Chris earned his Bachelor of Electronics Engineering from University of Tokyo and completed two master programs at the National University of Singapore. Chris is fluent in English, Mandarin and Japanese.
Jai is a man who wears many hats. As the CIO of the Dinesh Hinduja Family Office, he oversees investments across all asset classes for the group: real estate, equities, bonds, structured products, private equity and venture capital. He is also the Managing Partner for Gokaldas Lifestyle, the Group’s luxury real estate development firm.
Prior to joining the Gokaldas Group, Mr. Rupani was part of the investment team at True North (erstwhile India Value Fund), a USD 2.2 billion private equity fund in Mumbai. During his tenure at True North, Jai led the investments into Merucabs (one of India’s first taxi-aggregation companies) and ACT Broadband (a leading IPTV and broadband service provider). Prior to True North, Mr. Rupani was an investment banker with The Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets Group in their San Francisco office for several years. At RBC Capital Markets, Jai was an integral part of the technology investment banking team managing IPO’s, private placements and M&A deals.
He has completed his formal education in Finance and Real Estate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (BBA) and the University of Texas at Austin (MBA) in the United States. In his free time he enjoys mentoring start-ups, playing golf and spending time with his family.
Murali Krishna Joined Kolte Patil Family office (KPFO) as Head of Investments with over 15 years of experience in Investment and capital markets. The promoter family owns Kolte Patil Developers Limited (NSE: KOLTEPATIL BSE: 532924 ), a public listed real estate developer. He is currently responsible for investment management of the group including identification, evaluation, deal execution, and monitoring every investment asset classes including public markets. Also responsible for providing strategic direction as Head of Investments to the SFO and manage global investment portfolio for the family.
A science graduate in Mathematics from Kerala university and after receiving his MBA from the IBS, Hyderabad , worked with HSBC and HDFC where he managed equity and fixed income portfolios for individuals and corporates in the private banking space. Later on he worked with Famy Care Ltd ( Taparia’s Family Office ) and Unilazer Ventures Ltd ( Ronnie Screwvala Family Office ) in heading the SFO investments across asset classes. He has worked with Country Garden holdings Co Ltd (HKG: 2007), managing the Financing & Structuring for investments in India and Sri Lanka. He specialized in investing in alternative assets such as private credit, private equity, and real estate.
He is also on the board of investee companies of the group. KPFO website : www.kpfoventures.com
Vishesh currently heads the Family Office at the Berger Paints India Group. In his current role, he is responsible for managing the overall investment portfolios (including real estate), developing investment policies and other governance policies based on the core values of the family, as well as being an independent advisor to the family members who are on the board of the operating entity and laying down the IT infrastructure for the Family Office etc.
Prior to this, Vishesh has spent more than 7 years at EY where his work included advising clients in the area of insolvency & bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, brand structuring, mergers, demergers, amongst others. During his tenure, his clients included various large Indian listed companies and other conglomerates. Another important part of his role at EY was advising clients in the area of succession planning and assisting them in laying down governance mechanisms in the family and business (through family charters and trust structures). He had also assisted families in resolving conflicts arising due to businesses. He was instrumental in making various cross border initiatives (Private Client Services) successful at EY. He was also the India Champion for EY Nextgen Academy.
Apart from the above, he is a professional triathlete and regularly participates in various international long distance triathlons, including what is considered to be the world’s toughest single day sporting event: the Ironman.
Sunil specializes in the sourcing and execution of Asian investments ex-China, specifically in India, Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Korea.
Prior to joining Adams Street, Sunil worked for Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore performing financial and business analyses of local and regional companies. Previously, Sunil worked in India as an Investment and Strategy Associate in Tacogroup, the automotive technology and engineering investment arm of the Tata Group of India, where he worked on business planning, feasibility studies, and localization plans for new ventures.
Sunil manages relationships with several of Adams Street’s managers and sits on advisory boards of more than a dozen private equity firms within the Adams Street Partners portfolio.
Sunil is a member of Adams Street’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Committee.
Arjun Anand is an Executive Director with Verlinvest, the ~$2bn family office diversification vehicle of the Belgian founding families behind Anheuser Busch Inbev, the world’s leading beer group. He joined Verlinvest in 2015 for active Asia expansion and then setup an India office in 2019 to manage its active Indian portfolio.
He focuses on the food & beverage and digital consumer sectors, which are core to Verlinvest.
Arjun currently serves on multiple board including Sula Vineyards (India’s market leader in wine), Veeba Foods (India’s leading condiments brand), Drums Food (India’s first Greek yogurt brand), Purplle (Beauty E-commerce vertical), Wakefit (Digital-first home solutions brand), A-Star-Education (a Singapore based education company). He is also a board observer for Verlinvest in BYJU’S (the world’s most valued ed-tech company).
Based on his investing experience, Arjun researches the food & beverage, education and digital consumer sectors. He led the setting up of the Mumbai office at Verlinvest. He also researches trends in food consumption and consumer preferences globally, which also helps drive Verlinvest’ s F&B investments in Asia.
Prior to joining Verlinvest in Singapore, Arjun lived and worked across Australia, Malaysia and India, working with leading FMCG and Telecom organizations as a consultant. Based out of Sydney Australia, as an engagement manager at Kearney, he drove growth and go-to-market strategies in top food & beverage brands in the country. He also spent over a year in the leading Australian telecom provider, where he was focused on improving supply chain operations.
jit Kumar leads Evolvence India Fund, an India focused niche and differentiated PE Fund sponsored by New York Life Insurance/Gold Point Partners and Evolvence Asset Management. He is responsible for the core operations of the fund, from deal originations to exit as well as investor relations and regulatory compliance. During his investment career spread over 25 years he has been involved in Private Equity investments in more than 175 funds, direct and co-investments across various themes and strategies, sectors and geographies. He represents EIF on the Advisory Boards, Investment Committees and board of the various investments. He holds a MBA from London Business School.
Neha Grover has 14 years of financial services experience focused on the private equity space. In her current role, she is the Regional Lead of IFC’s South Asia Practice of PE & VC Funds. She is responsible for evaluating and closing investments in PE & VC Funds and on developing the Funds ecosystem in South Asia.
Prior to joining IFC, Neha was Principal and India CFO at Baring Private Equity Partners India where she covered various sectors for evaluating investments, finance, fundraising and structuring. Neha was named in the ’40 under 40’ list of Alternate Investment Professionals in India and also in the ‘India’s Top 100 Women In Finance’ by Association of International Wealth Management of India. She has also served on the Board of companies like BPEP India and Sphaera Pharma India.
She is an all-India rank-holding Chartered Accountant, a Company Secretary, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.
Sateesh Andra loves entrepreneurs with grit, clarity, and focus on execution. Technology start-ups with clear value proposition drive Sateesh. His investing, co-founding, leadership and engineering experience, for the past twenty-plus years in U.S/India, all veer around technology.
As the Managing Director at Endiya Partners, Sateesh serves on boards of AlphaICs, Darwinbox, and Kissht. Some of his past investments include Seclore, Little Eye Labs (Facebook) and mGinger (ValueFirst). Prior to Endiya, he was a Partner at Ventureast and DFJ.
Prior to DFJ, Sateesh was Founder/CEO of Euclid (Synnex), a Silicon Valley start-up, in the IT Management Software space and was instrumental in raising VC funding ($35 M+), besides acquiring and managing marquee customers and partners. He has also served in product marketing and engineering leadership roles at Tsqware (Synaptics), LSI Logic (Broadcom), and VLSI Technology (NXP).
Besides helping evolve ideas into real businesses, Sateesh is involved with the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy with the objective of popularizing sports and promoting awareness of chronic diseases in the corporate world. Sateesh was a top-ranked Table Tennis player representing A.P State in Nationals.
Sateesh holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Mr. Puneet Nanda is Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Venture with responsibility and oversight of all verticals across its diversified alternative asset management platform. Mr Nanda joined ICICI Venture in June 2020. Prior to joining ICICI Venture, Mr. Nanda served as Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, one of India’s largest life insurance companies in the private sector with an AUM of over USD 20 billion as of March 31, 2020. Mr. Nanda was closely involved in the IPO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance which became the first insurance company to be publicly listed in India in 2016 at a valuation of USD 7 billion. Mr Nanda served on the Board of Directors of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance from August 2010 until June 2020. He joined the company at its start-up stage in January 2001 as Head of the Investments function. During his 19+ years at the company, he was responsible for initially building and thereafter nurturing the high quality investments program of the company across asset classes including public and private equity, public and private debt, real estate and strategic investments. Subsequently, since 2010, his role was expanded to include oversight of other business functions of the company involving over 14,000 personnel across 500+ offices pan India as of March 2020. He has also served on the Board of Directors of ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company as its Non-Executive Director between 2009 and June 2020. Prior to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Mr. Nanda has worked at ICICI Securities and J.P. Morgan. Mr. Nanda received a B.E from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur and PGDM (Finance and Marketing) from IIM Lucknow.
Mohit Batra is the Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Venture, which is ICICI group’s alternative assets company, where he leads the Infrastructure practice. He joined ICICI Bank in 1992 and worked in the areas of corporate and project finance across a range of manufacturing sectors. He then moved to Mumbai as a part of ICICI Bank’s newly set up Infrastructure SBU and in 2004 was given the responsibility to Head the Project Finance Group which worked across the entire spectrum of Telecom, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, and Oil & Gas industries. In addition, Mohit was also involved in the strategic finance and advisory services offered by ICICI Bank including M&A, transaction structuring, acquisition financing etc. for the period 2006-07. Mohit has experience of around 150 deals including Public Private Partnerships. He has worked across the entire Capital structure including equity, subordinated /mezzanine debt and senior debt with total financing committed of around USD 36 billion.
Mohit has operated at the board level of companies and has had hands on experience in project finance, corporate banking, equity investing, strategic finance and resolution of stressed assets. He has in the past worked on several infrastructure policy initiatives undertaken by the Government in the areas of power, telecom and roads.
At ICICI Venture, Mohit is responsible for infrastructure investments including Resurgent Power, which is a Power Platform co-sponsored with Tata Power for buy-out of Indian power assets. Resurgent has recently completed the acquisition of Prayagraj Power Generation Company, a 1980 MW supercritical plant as part of the stressed asset resolution process initiated by the lenders.
Mohit is an engineer and has an MS in Management from Purdue University, USA.
Ms. Jain has 26 years of experience across financial markets in Europe & Asia in credit across deal origination, structuring, underwriting, portfolio & risk monitoring and fund management. Ms. Jain as head of BPEA India credit, along with her team has nearly 10 years of experience of in India credit. Prior to joining BPEA, Ms. Jain was Chief Risk Officer for Religare Finvest Limited, a SME & mid-market focused NBFC, responsible for managing risk across all businesses. Before that, she worked for 10 years in London as Managing Director at HSBC and previously as Director at Barclays Capital in the Structured Credit business. Before her stint in London, Ms. Jain worked in debt capital markets across debt syndication, loan trading & risk functions covering the market in Asia and was based out of Hong Kong with Peregrine Fixed Income Limited.
Ms. Jain has lived and worked in India, Hong Kong & the UK. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from VNIT and MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Michael Liu is a Managing Director of Portfolio Advisors and serves as a voting member of the Fund’s Investment Committee. Michael joined Portfolio Advisors in 2013 and leads the Asia Secondary Investment team. Previously, he was a Vice President at United Overseas Bank (UOB) in Singapore, in the Investment Management Division’s alternative investment fund-of-funds advisory business, where he worked with Portfolio Advisors in a joint venture for seven years. Michael joined UOB in July 2006 through the Management Associate Program.
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.
Mr. Satrajit Bhattacharya is a graduate in Arts from the North Eastern Hill University, Shillong and holds a Master’s degree in Finance & Control from the University of Delhi.
He is responsible for the equity investments including international investments made by HDFC Limited. He handles mergers & acquisitions, fund raising and strategic initiatives for the HDFC Group.
Satrajit has more than twenty five years of experience in investment management and related fields. He has comprehensive knowledge of regulations, business law, finance and accounting with expertise in business evaluation, financial statement analysis and deal structuring. He has in-depth knowledge of the industry practices pertaining to private equity and investment management. He has negotiated and executed deals in industries such as airlines, ITES, power, infrastructure, financial services, e-commerce etc.
He holds directorships in various HDFC portfolio companies. He is also the CEO of HDFC Investments Limited.
Sachin Bid is currently Fund Manager, Venture Capital at Nippon India Alternative Investments, a 100% subsidiary of Nippon Life India Asset Management (NAM India). Nippon Life Japan owns ~75% of NAM India. He is responsible for identifying, investing and managing portfolio of India centric early stage venture funds. He also serves on the advisory board of 2 venture funds currently. Prior to Nippon India, he co-founded, built and scaled an travel start-up focused on cruising, MyDreamHoliday, which was acquired by a market leader in the space. Prior to that, he was an investor with Ncubate Capital, a family office where he participated in incubating and supporting scale-up of consumer companies which grew from zero base to double digit monthly revenues ($ in mn). Prior to Ncubate, he was an investor at Nine Rivers Capital investing from its Fund-I in early growth stage companies. He is a CAIA member, CFA (ICFAI) and MBA.
Gopal Jain is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Gaja Capital, 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, most recently expanding into healthcare and domestic software, with a key focus on driving scale and transformation in its portfolio companies via operational value add.
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.
With 20 years of experience in operations, consulting and investing, Michael co-leads LeapFrog’s work in South and Southeast Asia.
Michael has led several of LeapFrog’s landmark investments, including Northern Arc Capital (formerly IFMR Capital) in India and Reliance in Indonesia.
The former Country Head for India for Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s sovereign fund, Michael led the global healthcare team, also focusing on financial services and infrastructure. Michael was responsible for over $700 million of investments in India, including Yes Bank, L&T Finance and Uniquest; and served on the boards of IDFC,and Apollo Hospitals. He managed the Khazanah healthcare portfolio, ranging from hospitals to health insurance providers, that was consolidated under IHH Healthcare and listed in Singapore for a $7 billion valuation.
Previously, Michael led the $250 million global custom manufacturing business for the Piramal Healthcare Group, focusing on global acquisitions, business development, supply chain management and talent.
Michael was a partner and spent 12 years with McKinsey & Co, where he focused on healthcare and consumer sectors across South and Southeast Asia, and also worked out of the firm’s offices in the UK, Singapore, Israel and South Africa.
Rohan is an Account Executive at SS&C Intralinks, overseeing the Alternative Investments activities across India.
His responsibilities entail supporting high-stake transactions like Fundraise, Audit, Portfolio exits, Investor Communication, etc., through secure and IRM driven technology solutions.
Amit has 10 years of experience in London and Dubai in investment banking, industry, entrepreneurship, and private equity. This includes 8 years of investing experience with FidelisWorld. He has been involved in various capacities in fundraising, deal sourcing, diligence, transaction negotiation, final closure, and exits of all FW portfolio companies, totaling approx. USD 150 million. Amit was actively involved in setting the overall strategy of the proprietary FidelisWorld vehicle and its portfolio companies. His previous experience includes helping manage the acquisition and integration of a major Middle Eastern steel foundry and valve manufacturer by Tyco, the global industrial firm.
Amit is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the General Course at the London School of Economics with a major in International Political Economy. He also completed a six-month course at the Beijing Language and Culture University. Born in India and raised in New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong, Amit speaks English, Tamil, Hindi, and Spanish.
Alok is a Senior Strategy Leader with over 20 years of experience in consulting across growth strategy, corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, market entry strategy, innovation & performance improvement advisory. He has led several commercial diligence engagements across Auto, IT, Pharma & Healthcare, Retail etc. He has had extensive international consulting experience being based out of US, India, Europe, and APAC. He works with Global Corporate Boards, Promoters, CEO’s, PE players as part of his Strategic Advisory efforts. Alok focuses on cross-industry solutions, leverages cutting edge thinking on Right to Win, Hypotheses Driven Approach and Design Thinking.
Alok works actively with Industry forums like CII, IDG, IACC, Assocham, FICCI, ET, ACMA and other trade forums/ academia interfaces. Alok is part of CII Future Business Council and is also part of its select committee on Artificial Intelligence.
Prior to Grant Thornton, Alok was Automotive Sector leader at a leading strategy firm. Some of Alok’s recent publications which captures his perspective on Innovation and disruption across Industry segments:
Alok is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Shivani Bhasin Sachdeva is the Founder & CEO of India Alternatives, a reputable mid-market, domestic private equity fund focused on investing behind transformational themes in India such as women becoming more empowered as consumers. Shivani has over 18 years of global private equity experience in the US and in India at top funds including GE Equity, Lightyear Capital and IDFC Private Equity. Shivani has helped shape strategy at market leading companies through board-level involvement and has been instrumental in generating stellar returns for her investors. Shivani has received accolades and recognition for being one of the top women leaders in Finance in India. Shivani received an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Economics from Mount Holyoke College (Phi-Beta-Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, Sarah Williston Scholar).
Jaideep joined the company in October 2017 to set the company on a new, accelerated growth path. He is an advisor to CEOs and business leaders of investment and tech ecosystem. From macro-economic trends to technology disruptions, and market and industry analysis, he has blogged, written and presented on a wide range of topics.
Prior to his current role, he was Managing Director - IDC India and South Asia. Under his leadership, IDC India was conferred the CIO Choice Award for “IT Advisor of the Year” three years consecutively in 2014, 2015 & 2016. Jaideep has been awarded the “Patrick J McGovern IDC Entrepreneur of the Year 2015” for consistent excellence in leading the South Asia team to success and “Leadership Award for Contribution to Market Research” by the World Marketing Congress in 2014.
Before IDC, he was based in London, UK and worked at Gartner for over 5 years where he was Regional VP, Sales & Business Development – EMEA and prior to that, he spent more than 2 and a half years in the Indian outsourcing sector, most notably at Zensar Technologies where he spearheaded the set up to their Financial Services practice in Europe. During the late nineties, he was in the software sector.
Jaideep is a graduate from the Shriram College of Commerce, Delhi University and holds an MBA degree from the Manchester Business School, UK. He enjoys reading, the occasional game of tennis and driving to remote parts of India
Shalil is responsible for research, events and training business that assists clients in improving their capabilities in key process areas. Before this, Shalil was ‘AVP, Research and Consulting’ at IDC India. He has an extensive senior level experience in the ICT industry that enriches his strategic engagements with companies. A much-sought-after speaker at international forums, Shalil also invests his time in leading innumerable focused group discussions in India. With his specialization in the BFSI sector, he covers an array of topics including emerging technologies, digital enterprises, industries and IT sourcing and servicing in his speaking engagements.
Shalil's role extends beyond delivering qualitative research content, and includes preparing forward-looking assessment and analysis and sharing market insights and predictions with senior management teams. He has worked in India, London, Edinburgh, Ireland, Western Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan. During his time in these organizations, he has driven the development of enterprise level technology strategies, managed large transformation and IT programs, and played a leading role in a post-merger IT integration of two banks in the United Kingdom.
A graduate of Computer Science, Shalil holds a postgraduate (MBA) degree from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), a leading business school in India.
Gaja Capital is a leading private equity firm in India’s mid-market. Gaja Capital is a high-touch and control focused firm with a team of strong operating professionals. Gaja Capital seeks to partner with entrepreneurs and professionals to build the future champions of Indian economy in the high growth sectors of education, financial services, consumer, healthcare and software. Gaja Capital is currently investing out of its fourth fund, which is targeting to raise US$ 400 Mn to invest in India's mid-market opportunity. The firm has an AUM of USD 450 Mn including the previous three funds, with commitments from marquee global investors US endowments, pension funds and foundations.
Gaja Capital was founded in 2004 by indigenous professionals with extensive operating and investing experience in India. With an exceptional network of some of India's most successful entrepreneurs, Gaja Capital has leveraged its deep local connect to partner with emerging businesses in India.
Madison India Capital is one of India’s leading private investment firms specializing in making equity investments in the business services, consumer, financial services, healthcare and technology industries. Since we are specialists in our sectors of focus we are a value added investor with a deep set of industry and capital markets relationships. We reward shareholders of outstanding companies with liquidity and partner with ambitious management teams of high-growth, middle market companies that strive to shape their industries.
We are highly innovative in structuring single company and portfolio purchases to ensure a full solution and set aside capital to support ambitious companies in their future growth plans. We partner with both management and co-investors in every investment we make and work collaboratively to build long-term, sustainable value. Our typical equity investment consideration is $10 to $35 million in companies. We are currently investing out of our most recent flagship fund, Madison India Opportunities IV.
Intralinks, an SS&C company, is a leading financial technology provider for the global dealmaking, alternative investment and capital markets communities. As pioneers of the virtual data room, our technology enables and secures the flow of information, empowering our customers to work more productively and with complete confidence. Intralinks facilitates strategic initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate lending, debt sales, capital raising and investor reporting. Our solutions enhance these activities by streamlining operations, reducing risk, improving client experiences and increasing visibility. We’ve earned the trust and business of more than 99 percent of the Global Fortune 500 and have executed over $35 trillion worth of financial transactions on our platform.
We are a unique investment firm that identifies growth capital investment opportunities in the Indian applied technology, media & entertainment, and lifestyle ecosystem.
We use our proprietary networks to identify excellent entrepreneurs whose companies are profitable; have scalable, high-RoE business models; are sustainable against disruption; and have the potential to develop a global footprint.
We establish true partnerships with management while actively assisting in value creation, thereby generating superior equity returns.
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