Abheek Anand

Abheek Anand is a Principal at Sequoia Capital India, where he helps lead early stage technology investments for the firm. Previously, Abheek was a Product Manager at Facebook in Menlo Park, where he ran several products on the ads team. Before that, he was the co-founder and CEO of Tagtile, a technology startup that was acquired by Facebook. Abheek has a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi, an MSCS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from Stanford University.

@abheek

Amit Soni

Amit Soni joined GA in 2008 and has worked in our New York, London and India offices. He is based in the firm’s Mumbai office where he focuses on investments in the firm's Internet & Technology sector, including IT services.

Amit is closely involved with General Atlantic’s investments in BillDesk, CitiusTech, IBS Software and Mu Sigma. He has played an active role in General Atlantic’s investments in House of Anita Dongre (formerly known as AND Designs), Kaspersky, MedExpress, Red Ventures, Hexaware and Infotech Enterprises.

Prior to General Atlantic, Amit worked at 3i Plc’s India office and focused on investments in the automotive, media, and oil & gas sectors. Amit has previously worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was instrumental in setting up the largest HIV/AIDS prevention program in India. He has also been a consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Amit earned his M.B.A from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelors of Technology in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Ananya Birla

Ananya Birla founded Svatantra Microfinance Pvt. Ltd at the age of 17 and in just over three years as the Chairperson and MD, she has established herself as a successful entrepreneur. When the risk perception in the industry was very high, Ananya in her independent capacity, played a significant role in changing minds in the regions where Svatantra operates. She is currently the Co-Chairperson of ASSOCHAM's Microfinance Council of India. Under her leadership Svatantra has won the “Gold Award for Best Start-Up” (Skoch Financial Inclusion and Deepening Awards, 2014), “Spirituality @ Work: Sach Bharat Samman” (Sach Bharat Confluence 2015) and has maintained a quality loan portfolio, offering one of the lowest interest rates in the country. She has also won titles like 'Leading Woman in Microfinance' (iiGlobal Business Information Pvt Ltd) and ‘Corporate Debutant’ (Hello! Hall of Fame Awards 2016) amongst others. One of the fastest growing microfinance institutions, Svatantra is differentiated by a 0% default rate as well as 100% cashless disbursements, and has been a driving catalyst for change in the industry. Svatantra is also currently pioneering cashless collections. True to her entrepreneurial spirit, Ananya is currently in the process of launching another venture in the ecommerce space, which revolves around travel and design. She has also co-founded the MPower movement, an awareness initiative to alleviate the stigma associated with mental health. 

@ananya_birla

Asutosh Upadhyay

A veteran in developing consumer-driven technology solutions, Asutosh Upadhyay is the Chief Product & Marketing Officer at TranServ. He is responsible for spearheading the product development as well as marketing divisions of the company.

A Bachelor of Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Asutosh has worked across several industries and industry verticals. He started his career at TVS Motor Company before founding his own venture, TechUnified Consulting. He then headed Business Development at MindHive Labs before moving onto OnMobile in 2010. He joined TranServ in April 2015.

Having started his career in a product role in an unconventional industry – automobile – Asutosh moved into the online gaming and mobile space. This allowed him to garner insights, a problem-solving approach and outlooks across different domains. It led him to imbibe a unique, flexible perspective aiding his development into a complete product person.

Asutosh is perpetually interested in the amalgamation of consumer services and mobile, and tackles every problem from a technology powered angle. Where others would see a gap in services, Asutosh would already be devising digital solutions to bridge it. He has worked on developing consumer proposition and business roles, and has taken up key marketing responsibilities in the organisations he has been involved in.

He has handled digital marketing for OnMobile through various new-age digital platforms. It was his interest in moving on to a more consumer facing role that made him lead Marketing at TranServ before taking on the joint ownership of Product and Marketing. Given his varied interests and ever-curious outlook, Asutosh’s transition from product to marketing was seamless and synergistic. This has given him a 360 degree view on things, which enables him to be aware of the nitty-gritties of his role at TranServ and helps him to contribute significantly towards the organisation’s future growth.

Benson Samuel

Benson Samuel is a person known for laying the framework for Bitcoin India. He is among the earliest bitcoin evangelists and activists and blogs about bitcoin space in India. He started the first India bitcoin Meetup chapter in early 2011.Benson Samuel at HackCoin said, "It (block chain) is definitely picking up, people are trying to understand it better. It can be used to make excellent products in banking and finance, contracts, exchange of tokens and many other things.

@bensonsamuel

Danny Wettreich

Danny Wettreich is Chairman and CEO of GreenBank Capital Inc and of its subsidiary GreenCoinX. GreenBank is a Canadian public company which has developed the world’s first cryptocurrency requiring user identification. GreenCoinX meets the same “Know Your Customer” identification standards as the banking community, and makes the promise of cryptocurrency a reality by alleviating concerns that crooks and terrorists can use cryptocurrency to hide their activities. GreenBank’s other subsidiary GreenBank Financial Inc. is a licensed Canadian investment bank. Danny is also Chairman and director of five publicly listed natural resource companies in Canada. He has been CEO of Churchill Venture Capital LP, a Dallas, Texas private equity business, for more than 25 years.  He has been a director of public companies listed on NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange, and the Vancouver Stock Exchange, a predecessor to the TSX Venture Exchange. These public companies have been in diverse businesses in internet technologies, oil and gas, retailing, telecommunications, media, and real estate. He has facilitated 13 reverse takeover transactions of public companies in Canada, the USA and England. He is a graduate of the University of Westminster with a BA in Business.

@dannywettreich

Gaurav Zutshi

Gaurav Zutshi is EVP & Chief Digital officer at Aditya Birla Financial Services group, leading direct to customer business across the portfolio of products - life insurance, mutual funds, digital lending, health & general insurance Broking. India's largest PFM (personal financial management) platform, MyUniverse is also part of his digital portfolio. Prior to this he has worked at Citibank, Visa, ANZ Bank, IBM, First Data and an entrepreneurial stint at Obopay & Money on Mobile. He was APAC Head of Product & Innovation at First Data serving banks & merchants across region with digital solutions in payments & mobility. At Citibank, Gaurav was SVP in Asia Pacific Innovation Lab, where he developed product prototypes & new business models around international payments, corporate cards and Forex optimization.

Gaurav is an investor & mentor to  few startups in FinTech, mobility & SaaS platform space.

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@gzutshi

Gautam Jaggi

Gautam Jaggi has over 10 years of deal-making experience. He has been a key strategic leader and financial advisor to a range of companies in the Enterprise, Internet & Digital Technology practice. Gautam completed his under graduation from Narsee Monjee College and holds an MBA from S.P. Jain, Mumbai.

Hemant Gala

Hemant Gala is the Director for Payment Business Development at Flipkart. He has been in the Payments space for more then a decade with leading roles in companies like Visa, ICICI Bank & HSBC. With experience across Banks, Payment network & E-commerce he brings multidimensional view on payments.

@h_gala

Mihir Gandhi

Mihir is an Associate Director leading the Payments Transformation practice in PwC India. He has more than 12 years of experience in advising clients on areas like strategy development - market assessment and business plan, payments business build out, operational efficiency and process design, vendor selection and implementation support.

Naveen Surya

Since joining the Essel Group 13 years ago, Naveen Surya has been known for revolutionizing electronic payment solutions in India. Backed by 17 years of experience in the finance industry, he introduced India’s first ever Multi Purpose Cash Card, ItzCash Card.

He launched ‘ItzCash Card’ in 2005 under the aegis of Essel Group to enable customers in conducting seamless, safe, and simple financial transactions without the age-old constraints of time, space, and location.Under his leadership, Itz Cash Card Limited has won national and international accolades including “Innovative Use of Technology”, “Best General Purpose Spending Card Program” and “the Most Innovative Prepaid Program” of the year 2008 for the “Octroi Automation Program”.

In the past he has been associated with TCS as Management Consultant, where he worked on projects like ACC, GE Capital (UK) and UBS (Japan).He also dons the hat of being the chairman of Payment Committee at Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and is an active member of Prepaid International Forum (PIF) and GIRO Committee of RBI.

Nikhil Raghavan

Mr. Raghavan has been with Bain Capital since 2008. At Bain Capital, Nikhil focuses on Technology and Consumer Goods, and is responsible for developing Bain’s Southeast Asia presence.

Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Raghavan was with The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised clients in Technology and Business Services. Mr. Raghavan also spent a number of years in the enterprise software industry and as an entrepreneur.

Nitin Bhandari

Nitin Bhandari is a Digital leader with 20 years of global experience across Payments & Telecoms industries. He specializes in creating & executing digital strategies, accelerating adoption through smart technology interventions, nurturing partner ecosystems, and inducing long-lasting behaviour change. He has played key roles in the launch of mobile wallet, digital payments, Internet of Things (M2M) and Mobility services in India; 3G, Fixed-Mobile-Convergence services in Europe and establishing product innovation, idea-2-market function and executing digital strategies for firms in Europe & APAC.

Nitin is a known speaker at business events globally and has co-authored "GB924-Service Model Framework" published by TeleManagement Forum. Nitin holds a Bachelor of Technology (Hons.) in Computer Science & Engineering from the Institute of Technology, BHU.

Nitin Nayar

Nitin Nayar is a Managing Director at Warburg Pincus India Pvt. Ltd. He is based in Mumbai and joined Warburg Pincus in 2003 and has been working with the firm’s Indian affiliate since 2004. He is involved in the firm's investment advisory activities in India and evaluates opportunities in the technology and media sectors. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Nayar was business development manager for Epoch Partners, a boutique U.S. investment bank and worked in the technology investment banking group at Merrill Lynch in Palo Alto. He is a director of MXC Solutions India Private Limited (Car Trade) and Capillary Technologies. Mr. Nayar holds an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Norbert Fernandes

Raman Khanduja

Raman Khanduja is the Head of Business Development for Visa in India and is responsible the country Sales and Client Strategy. In this role, he works with leading banks in India and constructively engages them to integrate Visa products and solutions to drive business growth. Prior to this role Raman led Business Development for South Asia which included five countries Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan. He has diverse experience of over 14 years spanning across in Banking, Consulting and Analytics. Prior to joining Visa in 2009, Raman has had stint at HDFC Bank managing their Product & Portfolio for their Commercial Cards Business. His work experience also extends across Retail Strategy at Centurion Bank, Credit Analytics at American Express and Management Consulting with Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Raman holds a Post Graduate Diploma from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from T.I.E.T, Patiala.

Ratna Viswanathan

Ms. Ratna Vishwanathan has served MFIN for the past one year as the designated Deputy CEO and Compliance Officer on behalf of the RBI after MFIN was assigned to be a SRO. She brings to MFIN a combination of government and development sector experience. Belonging to the 1987 batch of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Ms. Vishwanathan comes with extensive experience across a range of departments of the Government of India including Defense and Prasar Bharti. In the development sector she has served at very senior levels in well-known international NGOs such as Oxfam and VSO. Ms. Ratna Vishwanathan steered these entities through critical change management processes as they transitioned from international liaison offices to ‘full-fledged Indian entities’.

Sandeep Goenka

Sandeep Goenka loves to live in the future. He is an entrepreneur, investor and a geek. He’s co-founder of Zebpay, India’s biggest bitcoin exchange. Zebpay was in ET last month as it was the first bitcoin company in India to cross Rs 100 crores in trading volume. Zebpay also emerged as winners among global bitcoin companies at CoinAgenda 2014, Las Vegas.

He’s also member of LetsVenture.com and Indian Angel Network, two of India’s biggest tech funding platforms. He’s a charter member of TiE Ahmedabad. He has been voted as one of top angel investors in India by Inc42.

Originally from Mumbai, he’s based in Ahmedabad since 2006. Sandeep did his schooling and college from NM College, Mumbai. He then switched streams and did BSc Engineering from De Montfort University, UK. On returning, he did his MBA in Entrepreneurship from SP Jain, Mumbai.

@GoenkaSandeep

Sanjoy Bose

Shirish Andhare

Shirish Andhare, Chief Product officer @ Ezetap Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd loves to work at the intersection of software, designs and markets to solve hard problems.
As Chief Product Officer, Shirish constantly endeavours to transform customer insights into viable customer propositions. He has worked with leading technology corporations in Silicon Valley & in India. In his last stint before Ezetap, He worked as Senior Vice-President & General Manager, India Region for Naurus Inc., Subsidiary of Boeing Company.

A keen start-up & Entrepreneurship aficionado, he was a resident mentor @ Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad for a leading start up accelerator program in India.

He is an alumnus of Stanford University & has completed his M.S, Computer Science & Engineering from University of Texas, Arlington. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering, computer science from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology.

Sohini Rajola

Sohini Rajola is leading digital strategy and transformation at Axis Bank, the third largest private sector bank in India. Her 17+ years of professional experience spans across Payments, Retail Banking and Digital Business.

Her current responsibility at Axis encompasses all digital properties including mobile and internet banking, digital wallet, ATM and branch automation, customer campaigns and loyalty program. Her role extends to driving new technology adoption and nurturing start up initiatives and promoting design thinking.

Prior to the digital avatar, she has extensive experience in the payments business having launched and led the cards and merchant acquiring businesses for Axis bank. She is an MBA from Symbiosis Institute Pune. An indulgent but strict mother of two girls, she loves to play sudoku, scrabble or anything that challenges the mind in her spare time.

@RajolaSohini

Srinivas Padmanabharao

Srinivas Padmanabharao is the Director for Product Marketing, based in Akamai’s Bangalore office. He is an experienced industry professional with 18 years experience in the IT and Telecom industries working across Australia, USA, Canada, UK and India.

As the Director of Product Marketing, he focuses on helping customers understand the role of Akamai solutions in leveraging the power of the Internet to achieve business success.

Before joining Akamai, Srinivas worked with Oracle, IBM and Deloitte and he has a graduate degree in Engineering from IIT Bombay and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

T.R. Ramachandran

T.R. Ramachandran is Visa’s Group Country Manager for India and South Asia. He is responsible for all strategy development and business operations of Visa in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan.

Ram is also focused on driving the company’s innovation strategy which includes growing eCommerce, mobile payments, deepening the acceptance footprint, and building an electronic payments ecosystem which is secure and reliable. He will be instrumental in enhancing cashless payments and supporting financial inclusion in the region. He brings a wealth of knowledge to Visa with more than 25 years’ experience across retail banking, payment products, wealth management and insurance.

Prior to joining Visa, Ram was the Managing Director of Aviva Life Insurance in India for six years, over which time he contributed to significant organizational change which resulted in overall company growth. Before that he was with Citibank, N.A, for 19 years, serving as the Country Head of Cards and Head of Retail Banking, India. During his time there he held positions in marketing, product management, mortgages and business banking, and was part of the start-up team that launched consumer banking products.

Ram has a MBA from the Bharathidasan Institute of Management and is an alumnus of the CSEP Management Program from Columbia Business School, New York. He is an avid reader, volunteer and golfer.

@TR_Ramachandran

Vikas Kumar

Vikas is Partner, Corporate at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Attorneys and is based in Mumbai. His practice domain includes foreign direct investments, PE, M&A and joint ventures and strategic alliances. His experience spans across sectors such as technology, e-commerce, financial services and media & entertainment.  Vikas advises clients on exchange control laws, companies act and general corporate & commercial matters.

Vikas is qualified as Solicitor, England & Wales (Non-Practicing).  Vikas graduated with a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Vikas holds an MBA from INSEAD, France/Singapore.

Vishal Mehta

Vishal is co-founder of Lok Capital that started its impact investment operations in India in late 2004. Since then he has played the lead role in building Lok Capital as a premier venture capital fund focused on impact investing.  Lok Capital is one of the first India focused impact investor, backed by institutional investors. Lok is raising its 3rd fund and has so far invested over $85M in India and has fully liquidated its first fund.

Prior to Lok, Vishal worked for about a decade in marketing and business development in the financial services and telecom sector, both in developed as well as developing economies. Vishal holds an Engineering degree from Delhi University and an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Vishwas Patel

As the Founder-CEO of Avenues India Private Limited, Vishwas has guided the company to become South Asia's No. 1 ecommerce service provider.

The company's first initiative, CCAvenue® was launched in September 2001 and it today provides payment gateway services to over one hundred thousand eMerchants across the world. ResAvenue®, the second initiative is the fastest growing Hospitality solution and more than 1500 hotel properties in the Middle East and Asia are using ResAvenue's state-of-the-art booking engine, distribution and payment gateway services. EventAvenue®, the third Initiative was India's first and the industry's leading online registration and payment gateway software that is used by event organizers, corporations, schools, universities, associations, temples, non-profit and government organizations, and more, for conferences, trade shows, sporting events, class admission registrations, donation collection, webinars and other event managements.

Vishwas has been featured extensively in many publications and has been bestowed with many awards including the Asia-Pacific Information Security Leadership Award by (ISC)2 the non-profit global leader in educating and certifying information security professionals, in Bangkok in 2007. Vishwas is also the Vice Chairman of the Payments Council of India which represents the digital payments industry in India. He is also an active speaker at many Internet related forums. He is also an active investor providing Seed and Growth funding to over half a dozen internet companies. Vishwas is a Commerce graduate and holds a Degree of Law from the Mumbai University

@vishwaspatel

Yadavendra Tyagi

Yadvendra Tyagi captains the business development department at Citrus Payments Solutions. Presently, Director Business Development Yadvendra has over 15 glorious years of experience in the hospitality and sales sectors. He is the jack of all trades and the king, when it comes to exploring new market segments, standardizing sales operations and initiating network expansions. He has held office at various esteemed organisations including the National Payments Corporation of India, Global Blue and HDFC.

At NCPI, Yadvendra was an integral cog in the machinery that ensured the successful launch of RuPay cards on PoS machines. His leadership qualities helped him pilot development activities for Global Blue in both India and the Middle East. Yadvendra took on several roles in his time at HDFC Bank as well; from managing teams at the regional level to management of pivotal National Accounts, he has been involved in a plethora of key processes. At Citrus and has been instrumental in roping in and managing category leading clients such as Jet Airways, Go Air and GoIbibo, etc. Right from merchant acquisition to corporate accounts and now business development Yadvendra is a seasoned veteran in the banking and payments sphere.