Our speakers

Hemendra Mathur, Venture Partner, Bharat Innovations Fund | @bharat_fund

Hemendra has over 20 years of experience in private equity, management consulting and investment banking. Hemendra has significant experience of investing in Indian agribusiness in sectors such as food ingredients, animal feed, fertilisers, seeds, organic foods, spices, wheat milling, restaurants and catering. He is on the board of many early-stage companies in the food and agri sector. He is also associated with many incubator and mentoring networks for advising start-ups in the agri domain.

Prior to his VC stint, he has worked as management consultant to many Indian and multinational companies, government and multilateral organizations in the sectors pertaining to food processing, agribusiness, consumer goods and retail. He has extensive experience of working in India, South Asia, Europe and USA.

Hemendra in his career has worked with SEAF, Yes Bank, Rabobank, KSA Technopak, and ORG MARG (Nielsen). He is a management graduate from IIM (Ahmedabad) and Agricultural Engineer from Rajasthan Agricultural University.

@hemendramathur

Hemendra Mathur, MD, SEAF India Investment Advisors

Hemendra Mathur work as Managing Director for SEAF India Investment Advisors. Hemendra has about 19 years of experience in private equity, management consulting and investment banking.

For last five years, Hemendra is an active investor in the food and agribusiness sector. He has invested in eight companies so far from the existing fund in sectors such as food ingredients, animal feed, fertilisers, seeds, organic foods, spices, wheat milling and restaurants. Hemendra is also associated with many mentoring and incubator networks advising start-ups across a range of sectors.

Prior to that, he has worked extensively in providing strategic investment advice to Indian companies, international enterprises and government and multilateral organizations in the sectors pertaining to food, agribusiness, consumer goods and retail. He has extensive experience working in India, USA, Europe and South Asia.

Prior to working for SEAF, Hemendra has worked with Yes Bank, Rabo India Finance, KSA Technopak, and ORG MARG (now Nielsen).

Hemendra has studied management at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from Rajasthan Agricultural University, India.

Hemu Ramaiah, MD, Shop 4 Solutions Pvt Ltd

Hemu Ramaiah is the founder and ex-CEO of the Landmark chain of book / leisure stores. Hemu Ramaiah started this exciting brand in 1987 and created a chain of eighteen stores across the country. Landmark is known for its well designed stores, a wide range of international products and legendary customer service which changed the way people buy in India.

Hemu was instrumental in getting Landmark the ISO certification which was a first in retail in the country.Landmark has a track record of continuous growth in sales and profits over the last 20 years.She also set up the one of the biggest e-commerce sites in books in India called landmarkonthenet.com.

She founded a distribution/import/publishing company called Westland Books to establish the supply chain. Hemu has always been a trend-setter whether in design, technology, concept or product.

She now uses her wealth of experience in the retail space in Shop 4 Solutions her new consulting business. She is a venture partner with TVS Capital funds, a private equity fund specialising in the retail consumer space. She is the founder of an innovative design & interior firm called Ifrieze Design Solutions.

Henna Jain Tatia, Co-founder, StuCred

Heramb Hajarnavis, Founder & MD, Sealink Capital Partners

Heramb is the founder and Managing Partner of SeaLink Capital Partners (SCP), a private equity fund focused on high potential, mid - sized companies in select industries. He is passionate about collaborating and partnering with entrepreneurs to accelerate their growth with global best practices.

Prior to founding SCP, Heramb was the head of KKR’s Indian private equity business from 2010 to 2014 and led the investments in Magma Fincorp, TVS Logistics, Alliance Tires and Gland Pharma. Prior to KKR, Heramb was with Goldman, Sachs & Co. over a period of 10 years where he focused on evaluating investment opportunities for the firm’s global private equity and mezzanine debt funds across various industries. Most recently, he was a founding member of Goldman Sachs’ India office and served as Managing Director and Co-Head of private equity investing in India. Heramb’s prior experience also includes being part of the senior management team at Centennial Communications Corp. (a NASDAQ listed telecommunications services provider that was subsequently acquired by AT&T).

Heramb has served on several committees including as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee on Venture Capital & Private Equity, the CII Sub - Committee on Issues Pertaining to Foreign Investment in India (part of the National Committee on Regulatory Affairs) and on a special taskforce focused on healthcare financing as part of the US - India Health Initiative.

Heramb earned an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS). He was awarded an Aspen Institute Fellowship (India Leadership Initiative) in 2008.

Heramb Hajarnavis, Founder & Managing Director, Sealink Capital Partners

Heramb R Hajarnavis, Director, Private Equity, KKR India Advisors Private Limited

Heramb R. Hajarnavis (Mumbai) joined KKR in 2010 and is responsible for the development of KKR’s private equity efforts in India. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Hajarnavis was a Managing Director and co-head of the Principal Investment Area in India for Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he was involved in the execution of numerous investments including Mahindra & Mahindra, Sudhir Gensets and TVS Logistics. Mr. Hajarnavis’ prior experience also includes being part of the senior management team at Centennial Communications (a NASDAQ listed telecommunications services provider that was subsequently acquired by AT&T). He has a S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Hetal Gandhi, MD, Tano India Advisors Pvt Ltd

Hetal Gandhi Managing Director, Tano India Advisors Pvt Ltd. Mr. Gandhi is the former CEO for the financial services business of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL & FS), a well-known Financial Institution in India focusing on infrastructure financing and financial services.

Hetal has 16 years of experience in the entire spectrum of financial services business spanning private equity, investment banking and asset financing. Hetal recruited and managed the private equity team for IL&FS, and has led number of deals and exits. Prior to this, Hetal was engaged in Management Consulting for 3 years with AF Ferguson & Co.

Hetal is a certified member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. 

Hetal Shah, Director, Deloitte

Hilal Ahmad Lone, CISO, Razorpay