Amit Kapoor

Complementing his knowledge of India is Amit’s passion for entrepreneurship and innovation. He started his first profit-making venture at the age of twelve, when he opened a community library with zero capital. Later, he helped an entrepreneur in his hometown start a successful dairy processing unit, followed by an education franchise in Jaipur, which he helped establish and managed for three years.

Amit joined the MBA program at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, where he was awarded the Director's Merit Certificate for excellent academic performance. While at IIM he worked closely with the founding team of Concordas Limited, a company serving the life sciences industry. Upon graduation he joined McKinsey & Company where he supported senior management of leading Indian retail and IT services companies on a range of issues including business development, organization restructuring, operational efficiency and channel management.

As a private equity professional, Amit continues his search for exciting business opportunities in India and is passionate about working with local entrepreneurs to build world class companies.

Asim Dalal

Deepak Shahdadpuri

 Deepak I. Shahdadpuri is the Founder and Managing Director of DSG Consumer Partner and Beacon India Private Equity Fund. Deepak has over 15 years of private equity and venture capital experience and is an active angel investor focusing on consumer businesses with a strong emphasis on food and beverage value chain. Before this, Deepak held senior roles at Gem India, Reuters VC, Bain & Company and Ernst & Young. Deepak is on the board of Baker's Circle, Impresario, Eazy Diner, Exito Gourmet, India Lends, Indostar Capital, Indian Home Gourmet, Mswipe, Saffronart, Saraf Foods, Sula Wines and Veeba Food. Deepak’s investment experience also includes RBL Bank, OYO Rooms, Cleartrip, Redmart, F&B Asia and Furtado’s School of Music.

Deepak serves on the board of Magic Bus, a non-profit organization helping develop underprivileged children through sports, and on the advisory board of Dawn Capital, a UK focused Venture Capital Fund. He has an MBA (Distinction) from INSEAD where he graduated on the Dean’s list, a LLB (Hons) from King's College London and a FCA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales.

@dishahdadpuri

Dhanpal Jhaveri

Dhanpal Jhaveri is Managing Partner - Private Equity at Everstone, an India and Southeast Asia focused Private Equity and Real Estate investor with approximately $2 billion of assets under management. Dhanpal’s expertise lies in hand-on leadership supported by over 23 years of experience in Investments, Strategy, M&A and Investment Banking.

Previously, Dhanpal has held senior leadership positions with Future Capital Holdings and Vedanta Resources, Head of Investment Banking at ICICI Securities, and as a Partner at KPMG.

Dhanpal holds a degree in Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from Babson College, Graduate School of Business, United States.

Gaurav Jain

Gaurav Jain , Founder CEO, has been a retail enthusiast all his life. He comes from a family with retail consumer background and has always been passionate about this sector.

Gaurav has an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad and B.E. from MNREC Allahabad. Prior to Mast Kalandar, he worked for about 5 years in IT industry. He has had good stints with Planetasia (Microland) and then with Wipro Technologies. He has handled various sales & marketing roles for various geographies like the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. His strengths have always been to create new opportunities and execute them.

In one of the IT assignments, he got to work with Australian food chains, which made him to start his entrepreneurial journey in retail sector in India.

Gaurav a keen eye for detail and likes to work on processes & systems, which make the operations efficient and scalable.

His hobbies include reading, photography and traveling.

Jay Gupta

Jay Singh

Jaydeep Barman

Jaydeep Barman is the co-founder and CEO at Faaso's which is a quick service restaurant that serves up wraps, that is, rolls with fillings. Set up in 2004 with seed capital of Rs 8 lakh, Faaso's is opening a new store practically every month, at a cost of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh each.

Jaydeep thought of the idea for Faaso's based on the Kati rolls he had seen in his hometown of Kolkata, West Bengal. After his MBA, Barman moved to Pune, Maharashtra to work for Brainvisa Technologies. In Pune, Barman met Kallol Banerjee who was also an alumnus of IIM Lucknow and they both founded Faaso’s as a part-time business in 2004.

Jaydeep has a degree in production engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, an MBA from IIM-Lucknow and has done a management programme at INSEAD, France. Subsequently he moved to London to work as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. for 5 years before moving back to India to work full time at Fasso's.

Manish Tandon

Manish Tandon is the MD of Indian Cookery, which was created to launch high quality restaurants globally, specialising in Indian and other popular cuisines.

Mr. Manish Tandon has 23 years experience in the hospitality sector, of which thirteen have been in a General Manager/ National Director role. His key strengths are a deep understanding of the real estate market in India - involved in opening of over 200 outlets for KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Hard Rock Cafe, Gloria Jeans Coffees, Funcity, and Shiros.

He has strong brand start-up experience being part of the team for (Yum Restaurants International owner of brands like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bells launch in India as well as leading the Hard Rock Cafe and Shiro launch, as the CEO of the business.

Nikhil Khattau

Nikhil Khattau is an experienced banker, entrepreneur and venture investor who has built and invested in companies in India since 1995.  Nikhil also has an additional 10 years of international work experience. Nikhil focuses on the agriculture, financial services, retail, consumer services and media sectors in India.

He sits on the boards of Securens Systems (monitoring and surveillance), Matrimony.com (world’s largest marriage portal), Joguru, Inc. (trip planning platform named “Triphobo”), Marico Ltd. (packaged consumer goods, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange) and Kaya Enterprises (listed, specialty skin care).

Nikhil was the founding CEO of SUN F&C Asset Management, one of the first private sector mutual fund companies in India. Under his leadership, the firm successfully acquired two other mutual funds, and built one of the top-ranked India funds. Nikhil successfully sold the business to the Principal Financial Group, USA in 2004.

Nikhil’s prior experience includes working for Ernst & Young’s Audit and Corporate Finance practices in New York and London from 1986-1995, where he successfully advised a number of mid-market companies on their acquisition and divestment strategies. He also helped set up the firm’s investment banking advisory operations in Russia.

Nikhil received his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University of Mumbai and is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

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.

Pradeep Cholayil

Pradeep Hirani

Armed with an experience of over 20 years in Luxury Fashion Retail, Mr. Pradeep Hirani anchors India’s largest Multi Designer Fashion House - KIMAYA Fashions Pvt. Ltd. With 24 stores spread across India, UAE and Pakistan, KIMAYA was the first Indian fashion house to scale up the country’s designer wear industry, both in terms of footprint and experience.

Mr. Hirani constantly endeavors to revolutionize the buying pattern of the quintessential Indian woman and open up new vistas in the domain of luxury fashion. As a testimony, he laid the foundations of “KARMIK” - an innovative brand that retails prêt collections by Leading Designers at an average price of $100!

Under the aegis of Mr. Hirani, KIMAYA has won a number of awards along its journey since its inception in 2002. The company is an ISO 9001 certified Fashion House that has won the “Star Luxury Retailer of the Year Award” for 4 years in a row.

Having pursued his Masters in Business Administration from NMIMS, Mumbai, Mr. Hirani is responsible for developing the expansion strategy for the group. He is also an anchor and a regular speaker at various retail forums like IRF, RAI, IFF, and VC-Circle.

He is an advisory board member and goodwill ambassador to Fashion Institutes like The New School of Design (Parsons), National Institute of Fashion Technology, WLC College India, G.D. Goenka, and Pearl Academy of Fashion amongst others.

R Ramakrishnan

Rajeev Samant

Rajeev Samant is the founder and CEO of Sula Vineyards. After schooling Samant did his Bachelor's degree in Economics from California’s Stanford University and also completed a Master’s degree in Engineering Management. Post that he worked for two years at Oracle Corporation in Silicon Valley, managing the Compensation group.

In 1993 Samant returned to India and established Sula Vineyards in Nasik which was the first winery in Nasik in 1999. It was a pioneering effort and today Nasik is considered India’s wine capital with 35 wineries. In 2002 Sula was the first Indian winery to be the subject of a feature in Wine Spectator, the world’s leading wine magazine. Starting with a sale of 50,000 bottles in the first year, Sula emerged as India’s largest wine producer after completing a decade in 2010 with 3 million bottles sold.

Rajesh Sharma

Specialist at starting & building new, innovative & high growth ventures across sectors!

As a Private Equity professional, Rajesh  has helped entrepreneurs build exponential growth, scalable businesses, using a unique combination of Business growth, Capital Markets & Brand Creation tools.

He started his career as an entrepreneur, setting up own ventures in Media & Advertising, Education, Textiles & Tea.  Over the last 17 years he has worked  across industries ranging from Media, Private Equity, Consulting, Research and Analytics, E-Commerce,  IT/ITES helping companies like Times Group, Crisil (S&P), Kotak Mahindra, NIIT etc to set up new, innovative and high growth businesses.

He was instrumental in building up India’s first Online Information Services & Internet business, www.indiainformer.com (Matrix Information Services Ltd) in 1998, much before the dotcom boom.

At Brand Capital, he currently heads Market Development, the team responsible for incubating and funding, entrepreneurs to create new, path breaking, innovative businesses of the future.

Sanjay Kapoor

A banker turned entrepreneur, Sanjay entered the Indian fashion Industry in the mid 90s and gets substantial credit for leading to the corporatization of the industry. Post acquiring a slew of premium Indian fashion labels and taking them to the world, he has expanded his vision of luxury retailing by the introduction of several International luxury brands into India.

His long-term vision of further expansion in the domestic and overseas market, coupled with his financial and market insights enabled Genesis Colors to be the market leader. Modeled on the lines of global fashion conglomerates, the company has posted an impressive growth for the last few years and established its footprints across 16 major Indian cities through over a 100 stand alone stores. Kapoor stands as an epitome of a distinctive and a dynamic business success story – a stature that is only growing by years as he transforms Genesis Colors into a fashion colossus through his impeccable business acumen.

Spending his growing up years in Singapore, Sanjay studied at Raffles Institution and then did his MBA from the University of Rochester, New York. Post that he worked at Citibank in the Singapore and India offices before starting his own business.

Sanjay now lives in New Delhi and is a member of several trade bodies and organizations such as the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) and is a recipient of several awards for his innovative initiatives in fashion retailing. He is the chairman of the CII Luxury Goods forum and a regular speaker at industry forums across the globe. He unwinds with jogging, squash, reading and music. He is also an avid art collector.

Sanjay Vakharia

Mr. Sanjay Vakharia is the Director  & COO of Spykar Lifestyle Private Ltd. & has been part of the original team who founded Spykar in 1992. Prior to joining Spykar, he worked with Magna Publications as the Export Manager (Garments) wherein he was responsible for setting up the marketing network in the US & UK markets. Additionally, he served as Marketing Manager for Toys & Games division of the Magna group. in 1990, he set up the Jeanswear Brand RAGZ, in partnership with a few friends.

His sharp business acumen saw him rise from overseeing product development and Marketing to being the COO. He has played a key role in the overall Marketing & Brand Communication strategies at Spykar.

Under the astute direction of Mr. Vakharia, Spykar has set up a robust distribution platform across the length and breadth of the country spanning EBO’s, LFR’s, MBO’s, and online sales. Besides online, Spykar has over 2000 points of Sales across 300 towns and cities of the country.

It is his passion & purpose to be unique that makes Spykar deliver a product that is easily distinguishable from the rest of the brands in the denim market. His keen eye on every aspect of business coupled with extensive travel across the world has led to inputs which have propelled Spykar to compete with the leading international brands. Spykar has the distinction of serving one of the most fickle consumers of the country, the youth, since over two decades and this has translated in Sanjay Vakharia of being one of the few professionals in the industry having a wealth of knowledge on this consumer segment.

@snj9

Sanjiv Kapur

Mr. Kapur currently serves as the Managing Director in Asia for Wolfensohn & Company, a private investment firm focused on private equity in emerging markets.

From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Kapur was Senior Partner and Head, Asia Pacific Private Equity for Henderson Private Capital in Singapore. In this capacity, Mr. Kapur managed a successful $210mn Asian private equity fund that invested in China, India, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. He served as a Director/Observer on the Boards of HT Media (India), Maginet (Singapore), Jubilant Organosys (India), and Airmate (China).

From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Kapur was the Chief Investment Officer, Private Capital for AMP Henderson Global Investors in Sydney, Australia where he established the successful India infrastructure fund jointly with UTI that invested in ports, telecom, and gas distribution. He has served on the Investment Committees of several private equity funds including Capital Z Asia II, AXA-AIG Select Global Fund of Funds I and Asia Equity Infrastructure Fund. He also headed the $235 mn Henderson Global Fund of Funds investing in US, Europe and Asia.

From 1989 to 1999, Mr. Kapur held various investment positions at the IFC in Washington including Head of Private Equity and Head, International Securities Group, and invested in companies and funds across Asia, Latin America, Central Europe and Africa. He served on the Boards of Handlowy Heller (Poland) and CIC (Chile).

From 1986 to 1989, Mr. Kapur worked in New York at the HSBC Group (Vice President, Sovereign Risk Management) and also at AIG (1982-86). From 1981-82, he was at State Bank of India in New York. Mr. Kapur has a B.A. in Economics (Honours) from St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University) and an M.B.A. with Distinction from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). He was elected to the Executive Committee of the Singapore Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (2003-05).

Shankar Narayanan

Shankar Narayanan is a Managing Director with the Asia Growth Capital team of global PE fund responsible for advising growth capital investments in India. He is based in Mumbai.
 
Mr. Narayanan has been in private equity since 1993 with the unique distinction of having run some of the investee companies as a CEO. He has on-the-ground work experience across the country which allows him to have a very practical perspective of growth prospects and challenges across industries.
 
Since joining the global PE fund in 2004, Mr. Narayanan has led and advised Carlyle on key investments such as Claris Lifesciences, Elitecore Technologies, Repco Home Finance, Tirumala Milk Products, Visen Industries, Value and Budget Housing Corporation, Edelweiss Financial Services, South Indian Bank, Infotech Enterprises; etc. He has also successfully delivered exits from Tirumala Milk Products, Cyberoam Technologies and Repco Home Finance (IPO). He was also actively involved in managing the fund’s investments and exits in Newgen Knowledge Works, Financial Software & Systems, Learning Mate Solutions, QuEST and Sharekhan.
 
Prior to joining the global PE fund, Mr. Narayanan spent six years at Hathway Investments in Mumbai and during that time served as Managing Director and CEO. He was also with Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, based in Hong Kong, as a Director covering South Asia and India. He was involved in a number of prominent private equity investments in India, including Johnson Tiles, Exide Industries, Hathway Cable, Asianet Satellite Communications, Pushpa Polymers, Tata Infomedia and AFL Limited and served on the Board of Directors of all these Companies.
 
Prior to Hathway Investments, Mr. Shankar Narayanan worked at Citibank in Mumbai. He received a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from XLRI Jamshedpur where he was a Gold Medalist standing first in the graduating class in the area of Finance & Accounting and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Mr. Narayanan is currently on the Boards of Elitecore Technologies, Infotech Enterprises and Newgen Knowledge Works. Previously he served on the Boards of key portfolios such as Repco Home Finance, Claris Lifesciences, Value and Budget Housing Corporation, Visen Industries, Financial Software & Systems, Tirumala Milk Products, Cyberoam Technologies, Learning Mate Solutions, Allsec Technologies, QuEST, Newgen Knowledge Works & Sharekhan.

Vikram Nirula

Vikram has been with IVFA since March 2000 and was actively involved in setting up the Firm. He is based in Mumbai and is currently responsible for investments in diverse industries including consumer, retail, financial services and industrials, amongst others. Vikram is also involved in fund raising and investor relations activities.

Vikram is a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM. He has earlier worked for Andersen in their financial consulting and corporate finance practice, where as an Engagement Manager, he was responsible for telecom clients.

Vishal Gandhi

Vishal is the founder and managing partner of Gandhi & Associates— a leading Indian law firm which focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, venture capital/private equity transactions, and business disputes.

Vishal specializes in transactional work and on business/commercial disputes. He represents both investors and investee companies. He is also often seen on national television providing his expert opinion on various new and emerging areas of law and on disputes involving large industrial houses such as Cairn India, Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, etc.

Vishal has authored various publications including an article on “Key Legal Issues Relating to Joint Ventures in India” for the American Bar Association. Vishal frequently speaks on Indian law issues at various forums worldwide and his clients include US Polo Association, DDJ Capital, UIB Capital, Sun Mountain Capital, Avis Budget Group, Zimmer Inc, Cisco Systems Inc, University of Rio Grande, Qualcomm Inc, etc.

To contact Vishal, please e-mail him on vishal@gandhiassociates.com

VT Bharadwaj

VT Bharadwaj is a managing director with Sequoia Capital, and is on the boards of Vasan, Prataap Snacks, Lovable, Celon Labs and Genesis Colors. At Sequoia Capital, he spearheads investments in Consumer, Retail and Healthcare sectors. He was previously associated with McKinsey & Company where he advised senior management in energy, consumer, retail and manufacturing companies on key strategic and operational issues.

He is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad where he was awarded the Presidents Gold Medal and an alumnus of BITS Pilani.

@vtbharadwaj