Dushyant is Managing Director at Playbook Partners, an operator-driven growth capital fund investing in digital India.

He has over 25 years experience in consulting, private equity and technology, including executive and leadership roles at McKinsey, Deloitte, PwC and IBM. Along the way he has advised on nearly $4 billion in PE and M&A deals across diverse sectors, and advised Indian and global MNCs on profit improvement, M&A value creation, organisation development, and performance management.

Dushyant has an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.Com from Sydenham College, Mumbai.

Vikas Choudhury is a business leader, investor, and operator with a distinguished track record
across the digital economy, spanning companies valued at over $100 billion and investments
exceeding $10 billion in enterprise value.

He previously served as President at Reliance Jio (part of Reliance Industries Limited), where
he was instrumental in building one of the world’s largest digital platforms and commerce
ecosystems.

Vikas is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, the University of Pittsburgh, and the
University of Bombay. He currently serves as Co-President of the Harvard Alumni Club of
Mumbai and is a National Award-winning photographer.

Pankaj Harlalka is the Co-Founder of S45, India's first AI-native investment bank, backed by $5 million from RTP Global. A Company Secretary by training, he brings over two decades of experience in capital markets, merchant banking, and corporate advisory. He has led more than 16 main board IPOs, executed over 25 takeovers, and managed rights issues, buybacks, mergers, and demergers across multiple sectors. He has worked closely with some of East India's most prominent listed companies—including Ramkrishna Forgings, Rupa, Emami, Haldia Petrochemicals, and Centuryply—guiding them through key phases of growth and market expansion. At S45, he owns the deal pipeline and makes the final call on which companies the firm works with. His conviction stems from a clear-eyed reading of the market: there are too few trained bankers and too many companies ready to scale, and that AI can multiply institutional capability through faster diligence, fewer errors, stronger compliance, and better pricing discipline.

Deepank Bhandari is the Founder of S45, India's first AI-native investment bank, backed by $5 million from RTP Global. He brings over 14 years of experience across investment banking, private equity, quick commerce, fintech, and supply chain, with roles at Blinkit, 1mg, BNP Paribas, and Alcazar Capital. He spent years in private equity and banking in London before returning to India. He then scaled a supply chain venture to over ?500 crore in revenue. This experience gave him firsthand exposure to how India's best mid-market businesses are held back not by fundamentals, but by access to the right capital. At S45, he heads distribution and capital markets. His conviction is that capital markets need clarity over noise, and that going public should be a structured business decision, not a gamble.

Ankur Dubey is a seasoned venture investor and technology leader with over 13 years of experience spanning software development, venture capital, startup operations, and investment banking. As a Principal at Capria Ventures, he plays a key role in driving growth of portfolio companies and leading fundraising efforts in India, with deep expertise in technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors.

His career uniquely combines strong technical foundation, including 2 years as a Java developer at Oracle (US headquarters) working on security and high-availability systems, with extensive venture investing experience. As an early-stage investor and advisor, Ankur has been part of teams that invested in two unicorns (Shiprocket and PharmEasy), with several other portfolio companies raising over $50 million in follow-on capital. He has served on boards and as advisor to multiple startups across emerging technologies including clean energy/EVs, blockchain and smart contracts, applied AI, and digital agriculture. Ankur's entrepreneurial experience as co-founder of Habitastic (co-living startup) provides practical insight into early-stage company building. His consistent focus spans product and technology evaluation, GTM strategy development, hiring and team building, fundraising narrative development, and strategic guidance, helping translate technology innovations into scalable businesses serving India and global markets.