Our speakers

Niraj Didwania, Head Corporate Development & Investor Relations, HCG

Niraj Didwania heads the corporate development and investor relations function at HCG and was part of the team responsible in successfully taking the company public in the Company's IPO last year. Prior to joining HCG, Niraj was working as an investment banker in Kotak Investment Bank. Niraj, with combined experience over 12 yrs specializes in venture capital, private equity and cross-border Mergers and Acquisition transactions and has worked in Kotak, ING, UBS investment banks in New York and Mumbai. Niraj has management degrees in Finance and Marketing and has successfully closed deals in finance, consumer, IT and healthcare industries. Niraj has participated in Investor Conferences in Mumbai, Singapore, London and manages domestic and foreign institutional investors of HCG. As part of Corporate Development, Niraj is responsible for leading and managing new initiatives including domestic and international Joint ventures, partnerships and associations as well as investments in new ventures and start-ups.

Niraj Ruparel, Head Of Mobile & Emerging Tech, Groupm India

Niraj Singh, CEO & Co-founder, Spinny

Nirali Solani, Head, Chona Family Office

Nirav Kachalia, Managing Director, Morgan Creek Capital

Nirav Kachalia is a Managing Director of Investments at Morgan Creek and one of the founding members of the investment team with a principal focus on private investments. Mr. Kachalia joined Morgan Creek in December 2004 and during his tenure the firm has completed approximately $2.8 billion in commitments to private assets. In January of 2007, after several years of covering the Asia Pacific region, Nirav moved with his family to Hong Kong to open and head Morgan Creek's Hong Kong office. Prior to joining Morgan Creek, Mr. Kachalia was co-founder and Vice President for Strategy for HiFusion, an education technology company.

Mr. Kachalia assisted in all start-up activities including raising over $16 million and growing the company to over 150 employees before negotiating a successful sale to a joint venture corporation established by Sylvan Learning Systems and Aether Systems. Prior to starting HiFusion, Mr. Kachalia was an Associate at Winslow Partners, the personal investment vehicle for Kenneth Brody, a former Management Committee member of Goldman, Sachs. At Winslow he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and negotiating investment opportunities within early stage and late stage private equity. Prior to joining Winslow Partners, Mr. Kachalia was in the Investment Banking Program at Morgan Stanley in the health care group, where he analyzed and executed strategic corporate finance alternatives for both small and large capitalization companies.

Mr. Kachalia received his Bachelor of Science in Biology and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Nirav Khambhati, Partner, Kaizen Private Equity

Nirav is a Partner at Kaizen Private Equity, Asia’s first and only fund exclusively focused on education.

Prior to joining Kaizen, Nirav was with the Tata Group for over 20 years in various capacities including as the Chief Executive Officer of Tata ClassEdge and Tata Interactive Systems, Vice President – Chairman’s Office, and Head Telecom Practice – TCS, Asia Pacific. Nirav has led several international projects and collaborations in the fields of telecommunications and aerospace, and served as Director on the Boards of companies within and outside India.

Nirav is an Engineer and MBA (Gold Medalist). He was one of the twelve mid-career professionals selected by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK for the first batch of the Chevening Rolls-Royce Science and Innovation Leadership Programme at the University of Oxford.

Nirav was recognized as a Young India Leader by the British High Commission in 2013. In 2016, Jagran Lakecity University conferred upon him an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts (Management) for his contributions in the space of management, education and technology. Nirav is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Council for Primary Education.

Nirav Pujara, Partner - Corporate Finance & Restructuring, Deloitte India

Nirav Pujara is a Partner with Deloitte India and part of the Corporate Finance & Restructuring practice. He has over 17+ years of experience in delivering Business Consulting, Risk Advisory, Restructuring services and Operational turnaround advisory services to corporates across industries.

Nirav’s areas of expertise include Insolvency Professional services, working capital management, pre-insolvency monitoring services, operational turnaround services and debt raising.

He is a Chartered Accountant and a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and qualified Resolution Professional. He also has a substantial overseas work experience including a stint with Deloitte UK member firm for two years.

Niren Shah, Managing Director & India head, Norwest Venture Partners

Niren is a Managing Director at Norwest (NVP) India and has been leading NVP India for over 10 years. Niren brings more than 20 years of Investing, entrepreneurial, financial and operating experience from leading global financial institutions to consumer and technology companies.

Niren focuses on both Private equity and late stage Venture investments with special interest in sectors such as Financial Services, Internet, Consumer and Technology. Niren has overseen more than 30 investments at NVP India and has directly facilitated 14 such investments. Investments include Cholamandalam Finance, Pepperfry, IndusInd Bank, ING Vysya, Jain Irrigation, RBL Bank, Quikr.com, Swiggy.com, RevX Technologies, Shriram City Union, Yes Bank, Five Star Finace, Esskay Fincorp and Kotak Bank. Niren also has a strong exit record having overseen more than 15 exits, of which he has directly facilitated significant exits for 9 of his companies

Prior to joining NVP India, Niren was the Senior Director of Strategy and Ventures at eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) in California, where he helped drive the worldwide strategy across eBay’s Global Marketplaces. Prior to eBay, Niren was part of the original team at Baazee.com, Inc., the leading Indian eCommerce player in the mid-2000s (which was eventually acquired by eBay). Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, Niren was an investment banker with KPMG focusing on the Financial
Services and Technology spaces and before that, a Registered Equity Dealer on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Niren is a rank holder Chartered Accountant and a Gold medallist Masters in Commerce from University of Mumbai.

Nirmal Gangwal, Founder, Brescon & Allied Partners LLP

Mr. Nirmal Gangwal, is an investment banker specialising in crafting financial solutions, liabilities management, recapitalization, debt resolution, financial restructuring and divestments with over 39 years of experience. He is the founder and chairman of Brescon Group, India’s first and one of the largest independent investment bank specialized in special situations and stressed assets advisory for last two decades. Brescon & Gangwal have become synonymous with “Regenerating Value” and “Creating Opportunity in Adversity” out of special situations and stressed assets. If increase in market capitalisation of the top 25 cases is considered as benchmark for value creation, Gangwal has created 16x value for its clients leading to market capitalisation of over $13 bn. He has guided more than 300 corporates in their growth phase as well as in stress by way of liabilities management in excess of USD$ 20 bn (INR 1,40,000 crores). He has also advised public sector banks to find possible ways and means to improve upon Capital Adequacy Ratio post Basel III requirements. Well regarded by the industry for his out-of-the box thinking capabilities, he advised one of the premier public sector bank in improving capital adequacy ratio by recapitalisation of the real estate value. He has deep insights in the special situations and stressed assets market and is often regarded to have one of the sharpest financial minds across India.

He has been a thought leader in Special Situation Advisory, bringing several innovative ideas to the attention of regulators and policy makers from time to time and was part of the Working Group formulated for implementation of the latest Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 by Government of India. Recently, Mr. Gangwal is working on setting up a not-for-profit online advisory platform for helping stressed companies in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector wherein he plans to advise these companies in their debt resolution. The team is working on the initial beta version of the digital platform.

Nirmal Jain, Founder & Chairman, IIFL Group