Shri. K. J. George

Shri. KELACHANDRA JOSEPH GEORGE, Hon’ble Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industry, Sugar, Information Technology & Bio Technology, Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore, is an Industrialist and Planter by profession and a Social Worker. Started his political career by joining Indian National Congress during 1968, since then he is an active member of the Party.

He had started his political career as President, Gonikoppal Town Youth Congress during 1969. During 1972-73, he was a General Secretary to Coorg District Youth Congress Committee later during 1973-75 and then he became President of Coorg District Congress Committee. He was a Treasurer of the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee during 1975-78 and later became President of Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee during 1979-82.

He was also a National General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress Committee during 1982-85. In 1985, contested from Bharathinagar Assembly Constituency and entered for the first time (1985-89) the prestigious State Legislature as its Member. He also held a high profiled position in the Party and Secretary of the Congress Legislature Party.

During 1989, he was the Minister in the Council of Ministers headed by Late.Shri. Veerendra Patil (who termed as an Iron Man of the State) and held the Portfolio of Transport, Food & Civil Supplies (1989-90). Now, these portfolios are shared by two individual Ministers. He was the Minister in the Cabinet headed by Late Shri. S. Bangarappa and held the portfolio of Housing and Urban Development (1990-94). Now these portfolios are shared by three Ministers. He had identified himself in the government as a Champion of Minorities under the able leadership of Late Shri. Bangarappa. He was a model in the Cabinet for his simplicity and generosity mixed with sincerity and honesty.

During 2008 general election to the assembly, for the third time and during 2013 General Election for fourth time he was elected from Sarvagnanagar Assembly Constituency from Bangalore Urban.

During 2013 He was the Minister for Home Affairs (19.05.2013 to 30.10.2015). During 2015 he was the Minister for Bangalore Development & Town Planning (30.10.2015 to 18.07.2016). He once again become the Minister for Bangalore Development and Town planning (26.09.2016 to 17.05.2018). His winning continued during 2018 general election to the assembly, he was elected again from Sarvagnanagar Assembly Constituency for the fifth time and he was become the Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industry, Sugar, Information Technology & Bio Technology, Science and Technology. (08.06.2018 to 27.12.2018)

He was being an MLA for five terms (during 1985-89, 1989-94, 2008-13, 2013-2018 & 2018 to till date), the Congress Party has recognized his services and awarded him suitably several highly responsible portfolios.

He is an instrumental in initiating a move to attract the Naxal Force by mooting a package for their demands and welfare inviting them to surrender themselves voluntarily. Now he is a Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industry. (28.12.2018 till date)

Harish Narasappa

Harish Narasappa is a founding partner of Samv?d: Partners. Harish is a leader in advising early stage startups in India. He has extensive experience in advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, banking, corporate financing, private equity, venture capital, technology, regulatory and dispute resolution matters.

Harish has represented and advised several leading overseas corporations on their acquisitions and business operations in this country, as well as renowned Indian companies on their commercial transactions and investments worldwide.

Harish is also a co-founder of Daksh, a Bengaluru-based independent, not-for-profit organization which uses cutting edge technology to solve various problems facing India’s judicial system. Daksh has built India's first public database on the judiciary. Harish is also closely associated with the National Election Watch.

Harish is the author of the book titled "Rule of Law in India – A Quest for Reason" published by Oxford University Press.

Ajeya Motaganahalli

Ajeya Motaganahalli works as the Senior Director for Engineering Programs, Strategy and Business Operations at NetApp India and heads NetApp’s first ever startup accelerator program called the NetApp Excellerator (startup.netapp.in).

Ajeya is an alumnus of the UC Berkeley HaaS School of Business and is a well-rounded Engineering leader with 18 years of experience in software product development, strategy and operations.

In this era of digital transformation, Ajeya aspires to provide pioneering leadership in transforming product strategy and execution by developing high quality engineering inputs into top quality outcomes. Ajeya is passionate about giving back to the ecosystem by nurturing innovation through helping and enabling start-ups and building future unicorns.

Alok Goel

Alok leads investing practice around SaaS and Social at SAIF Partners. Prior to this, Alok was CEO of Freecharge (acquired by Snapdeal) and COO of RedBus (acquired by Goibibo). Prior to his startup stints, Alok spent 5 years at Google in Bangalore and Mountain View in various product roles. Alok holds an MBA from India School of Business and a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. He has 3 patents and was listed in the Fortune India 40 under 40 lists for 2014.

Venkatesh Peddi

Mr. Venkatesh Peddi is Executive Director at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has over 17 years of industry experience, including 11 years of venture experience.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Venkatesh was Deputy Vice President at Reliance Venture Asset Management – the corporate venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group. He 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. He 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.

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).

Harshjit Sethi

Harshjit advises on investments in early-stage businesses at Sequoia India and is focused on fintech, SaaS and consumer internet sectors. He works closely with BharatPe, Freshworks, smallcase, Turtlemint and Vymo amongst others.

Prior to Sequoia, he was an early employee at Dropbox where he used to lead the android product which he saw scale to hundreds of millions of installs. He has completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from Stanford University where he was a Frederick Terman scholar.

Samir Kumar

Samir is a Partner at Inventus India. He has been an early-stage venture capital investor in India since 2001.

Inventus India invests primarily in Series A rounds in tech ventures – which include Internet, Mobile, SaaS, Blockchain, IoT and ML/AI based applications.

Prior to co-founding Inventus in 2006, Samir led the India venture investing team for Acer Technology Ventures, where he made early-stage investments in the technology space.

Prior to his VC career, Samir spent 15+ years in the IT industry in India in Sales, Marketing and Product Management roles, starting with Computer Point, then moving onto a 10+ year stint with Wipro Infotech, and finally a 2½ year stint with Planetasia.

Samir is a Charter Member of Tie Bangalore, and has been a past member of its Governing Body. He is a Member of the Board of Governors of SINE (technology incubator at IIT Bombay), a member of the Board of Advisors at FabCI (technology incubator at IIT Hyderabad), and on the board of advisors at DERBI (technology incubator at Dayanand Sagar University).

Samir earned his B.Tech from IIT-Bombay in 1984 and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore in 1986, where he was awarded the Best All-Round Outgoing student.

Arpit Maheshwari

Arpit believes that startups will use technology to solve uniquely Indian problems and create large world-class companies as a result. As a VC, he is looking forward to working with, and learning from, great entrepreneurs from the early stage of their journey. Prior to VC, Arpit donned many hats - he was a management consultant with BCG, ran product management for automotive and education startups, and corporate innovation for a large manufacturing house.

Shweta Bhatia

Shweta leads the technology, consumer and financial services Ventures team in India. She has over 15 years of experience in venture and growth equity investing. Prior to joining Eight Roads, Shweta was Head of Asia Investments for the Venture Capital & Growth Equity team at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Shweta began her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs based in New York and worked in growth equity investing role at Warburg Pincus in Mumbai before re-joining Goldman Sachs in 2010. Shweta has held board roles with companies that include Whatfix, Chaipoint, Shadowfax, Fabhotels, Indostar, Boss Zhipin (China) and Momo (Vietnam). Shweta received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Smith College.

Eight Roads is the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited. Eight Roads Ventures invests in high-quality, high-growth companies in Asia, Europe and the US, with a focus on healthcare, technology and consumer products. Eight Roads Ventures is committed to making the companies it invests in leaders in their industries through access to patient capital, a powerful network of resources and a team of investment professionals with a proven track record of success. Eight Roads Ventures’ investments in India and Southeast Asia include Icertis, Manthan, Pharmeasy, Chaipoint, Toppr, Shadowfax, Northern Arc, Akulaku, Early Salary, Laurus Labs and Cipla Health.

Sateesh Andra

Sateesh Andra is co-founder and managing director at Endiya Partners, a venture capital firm focused on backing B2B startups at the seed and early stages. A veteran in early stage investing in India, Andra was part of the founding team that set up Draper Fisher Jurvetson's local operations and later led the Ventureast Tenet Fund. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Andra founded and sold Euclid, a Silicon Valley based startup in the IT management and software space.

Dinesh Goel

He is a partner with Siana Capital, a deep tech-focused early-stage venture capital firm. He is an active angel investor and mentor to deep tech/science startups: IoT, Cold chain management, AI /ML driven Fraud Detection, Deep data sciences for behavioral insights, cyber security, cyber insurance and 3D printing of human organoids. He has a rich experience of 25 years in strategic leadership and operational management.

Aakash Goel