Our speakers

Karan Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, Localbanya.com

Karan, a Computer Engineer by degree, completed his education from RGIT (Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology) in 2007.

Working since he was 18, his career began with a hospitality company catering to BPO’S and MNC’S in Mumbai and Pune.He then moved on to set up India’s first water jet cutting plant in Umargaonpost which he went on to manage Kenwood marketing for food distribution.

Karan’s motivation to start LocalBanya stemmed from the network of food distribution he was a part of. That, coupled with the rapid growth of e-commerce in India, excited him to enter the e-grocery space.

His title at LocalBanyais the co-founder & Chief Executive Officer but his role changes constantly. Currently, his focus lies on the Logistics & Operations side of the business and the aim is to scale up operations and reach more households, more cities, and maybe even beyond.

Karan Mehta, Founder and CTO, Kissht and Ring

Karan Mohla, Executive Director, IDG Ventures India

Mr. Karan Mohla is Executive Director at IDG Ventures India Advisors and is involved with the investments in  Brainbees (Firstcry.com), Yatra.com, Vserv, Peel-Works, HealthifyMe, POPxo, Aurus (Superprofs.com), Tripoto, LittleBlackBook and Silverpush. He has been investing in Indian companies since 2009 and leads the sector coverage in Digital Consumer investments at IDG Ventures.

Prior to IDG Ventures, Karan worked with QVT Finance LP, a US based hedge fund and was a founding member of their Asia-Pacific practice heading investments in technology companies in the region. He earlier worked in the technology banking group at Jefferies & Company (formerly Broadview International) in Silicon Valley, where he helped several emerging technology companies in capital raising, M&A and strategic partnerships. Later, Karan helped start the Jefferies India office.

@KaranMohla

Karan Mohla, Partner, Chiratae Ventures

Karan Mohla is a Partner at Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India) as well as the Head of Consumer Technology & Media where he heads the sector focus and strategy. He also leads fundraising and partnerships for the firm in the Asia region. Karan was recognised by BusinessWorld Magazine as one of the 40 under 40 leaders for 2018, as well as one of the 40 under 40 Alternate Investment Professionals by the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF).

Karan has been part of the technology and startup ecosystem since 2003 with experience spanning investment advisory, finance, portfolio management, fundraising and M&A. he has worked on investments in companies including Bounce, FirstCry, HealthifyMe, Xpressbees, Peel-Works, POPxo, LittleBlackBook, CropIn, Tripoto and Yatra.com (NASDAQ: YTRA).

Prior to IDG Ventures, Karan worked with QVT Finance LP, a US based hedge fund and was a founding member of their Asia-Pacific practice. He earlier worked in the TMT investment banking group at Jefferies & Company (formerly Broadview International) in Silicon Valley, where he advised several technology companies in Internet, Mobile and Enterprise Software on capital raising, M&A as well as strategic partnerships. Later, Karan helped start the India office for Jefferies where he advised and executed financing strategies for companies in the Technology, Media, Telecom, CleanTech and Education sectors. He has successfully completed over 20 transactions covering M&A and helped raised over $1 Billion in capital for corporates across India and the US.

Karan holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration (BBA) from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an EMBA from INSEAD, where he was the youngest graduate in the program's history.

Karan Mohla, Partner, B Capital Group

Karan Singh, Partner, Trilegal

Karan Singh is one of the founding partners of Trilegal and is based at the Mumbai office. His primary areas of practice are Private Equity and M&A. He also serves on the firm’s management committee.

Karan has been actively involved in several high profile private equity and venture capital investments, in-bound and outbound acquisitions as well as joint ventures. He has advised clients in various sectors including real estate, technology, energy, telecom, food, manufacturing, trading and retail.

Karan Sunthankar, Executive Director, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP

Karan Sunthankar, Executive Director, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP

Karan Taurani, VP - Research Analyst (Media), Elara Securities (India) Private Limited

Karan Virwani, CEO, WeWork India

A young, dynamic and successful entrepreneur – Karan Virwani, CWeO, WeWork India has been instrumental in bringing WeWork, a New York based collaborative work space giant and the 5th Largest start-up in the world to India.

With a passion for start-up community and a degree in Business Administration from Kent University, Karan’s responsibilities include driving growth for the new venture, vision and strategy as he aims to democratize the collaborative work space in India. His vision is to find unique ways of building communities and propagating the work culture of ‘Do What You Love’ in the Indian scenario.

A game changer and a pro-community building person, with WeWork, Karan is creating a culture of ‘Do What You Love’, yet shaping and innovating future growth opportunities for the company.

Karan firmly believes in the motto wherein at WeWork, one joins as an individual ‘me’ but ultimately becomes a part of the greater ‘we’! In his role at WeWork, he aims to make it into a place in India which redefines success measured by personal fulfilment, and not just the bottom line. Because, ultimately community is the catalyst!  

Being a dynamic thought leader and team player, Karan has also gained knowledge working as the EA to the Chief Managing Director at the Embassy Group. Further, has also tasted success in the hospitality wing and is the Co- Founder of two companies, Lounge Hospitality and Lounge E-comm, thus launching two successful restaurants in Bangalore, Sanchez & Singkong along with the food delivery app Entrée.