Our speakers

Rajesh Puri, CEO, Meru Cab Company

Rajesh Puri is the CEO of Meru Cab Company. Prior to Meru Cabs, Rajesh was the President - Operations at Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd. After completion of his mechanical engineering, he post graduated in management from S P Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai. He has a wealth of experience across sales, marketing, operations and distribution. Over the last 22 years, he has worked with some of India's finest blue chip companies across industries. Post his initial years at ONGC in oil exploration; he has led growth efforts at Godrej GE, Whirpool, Electrolux & Airtel. In each of his endeavors he has led his brands from start-up to unassailable leadership.

Rajesh Raju, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital

Rajesh is a pioneer in investing in direct-to-consumer companies in India. His investment interests span consumer categories in retail, education and mobile. Rajesh returned from the US in 2006, drawn by the immense potential that India presents for entrepreneurs in reshaping the country. He has been a part of the startup ecosystem ever since.

In a career spanning over 20 years, Rajesh has had a broad set of experiences in the technology industry across product development, sales, M&A, equity research and private equity. He currently serves on the boards of several companies. Rajesh has an MBA (Hons) from the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, a Master’s in engineering from Marquette University and Bachelor’s in Engineering from BITS, Pilani.

Portfolio: Cashkaro.com, Simplilearn, Magzter, Ovenfresh, Truweight, Embibe, Swipe Telecom, Superprofs, Truebil and Shopalyst.

Rajesh Ramaiah, Director & CFO, Premji Invest

Rajesh is a Director and CFO of Premji Invest. Premji Invest is a investment office of Mr Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro. Apart from the role of being the CFO for the entire fund, Rajesh is an operating partner for the Private Equity Investments and also manages the fixed income portfolio of the fund. Rajesh represents Premji Invest in the board and committees of its portfolio companies.

Rajesh spent 13 years from 1995 until 2008 in Wipro, a leading IT company in India and carried out various roles with in the finance function. In his last assignment between 2006 and 2008, Rajesh was the treasurer and head of investor relations for Wipro Limited managing over USD 5 bn currency exposures and 2 Bn of investments and borrowing.  This was his most challenging stint with IT facing slowdown as a sector and rupee appreciating significantly.

Post his stint at Wipro, Rajesh joined Reva Electric Car Company Pvt Limited as CFO in Apr 2008. Reva, is a leading electric car manufacturer funded by DFJ and Global Environment fund. Rajesh was instrumental in identifying a strategic partner ( M&M) for Reva and providing exit to the investors.

Rajesh is a complete finance professional with excellent academic qualifications. He has done his CPA from US and is an ACMA from CIMA, London. This was after completing his ICWA, ACS & CA in India.

Rajesh Ramdas, Head of Customer Engineering, Digital Natives, Google Cloud

Rajesh Ranavat, Executive Director, Fung Strategic Investments

Rajesh is an accomplished senior executive who has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations in leadership positions working in several countries across diverse businesses and nationalities with a successful track record. He has more than 30 years of experience in the retail, distribution and logistics of fast-moving consumer goods, fashion and beauty products covering Asia, Middle East, Europe and the US.

Rajesh is currently a Director of Fung Strategic Holdings, the private investment arm of the families of Dr. Victor Fung and Dr. William Fung, the controlling shareholders of the Fung Group. In addition, he is the CEO of FSX Pte Ltd which is the holding company for the Fung family’s investments in India and South-East Asia as well as CEO of Fung Management MENA DMCC based out of Dubai. Rajesh was also a Non-executive Director on the Board of LF Logistics Ltd, which is a multinational logistics company and subsidiary of Li & Fung Group, which was acquired by Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, for a multi-billion dollar consideration.

Rajesh has been with the Fung Group for the last 25 years in various leadership positions covering operations, strategy, finance and M&A. He was recently the COO and Executive Director of LF Logistics and also Head of Global Freight Management from 2014 to 2019. Prior to this he was based in London as Managing Director – Strategy and M&A for LF Europe, where he completed several strategic deals in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the US to build a multi-billion on-shore distribution platform for LF Europe and expand the LF Beauty business in the US.

Rajesh joined IDS Group, the logistics and distribution arm of Fung Group, in 1999 as Group Development Director and subsequently as Chief Financial Officer in 2003 where he led the IPO initiative for a successful public listing of IDS in Hong Kong in 2004 as well as completing several M&A deals to grow the global footprint of IDS in Asia, Europe and the US.

Prior to joining the Fung Group Rajesh worked with Inchcape plc a global multinational in various management roles based in the Middle East, UK, Japan and Singapore. Prior to this he worked with PwC, the Big4 global accounting firm in the Middle East and India.

Rajesh holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from India and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant.

Rajesh is an accomplished senior executive who has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations in leadership positions working in several countries across diverse businesses and nationalities with a successful track record. He has more than 30 years of experience in the retail, distribution and logistics of fast-moving consumer goods, fashion and beauty products covering Asia, Middle East, Europe and the US.

Rajesh is currently a Director of Fung Strategic Holdings, the private investment arm of the families of Dr. Victor Fung and Dr. William Fung, the controlling shareholders of the Fung Group. In addition, he is the CEO of FSX Pte Ltd which is the holding company for the Fung family’s investments in India and South-East Asia as well as CEO of Fung Management MENA DMCC based out of Dubai. Rajesh was also a Non-executive Director on the Board of LF Logistics Ltd, which is a multinational logistics company and subsidiary of Li & Fung Group, which was acquired by Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, for a multi-billion dollar consideration.

Rajesh has been with the Fung Group for the last 25 years in various leadership positions covering operations, strategy, finance and M&A. He was recently the COO and Executive Director of LF Logistics and also Head of Global Freight Management from 2014 to 2019. Prior to this he was based in London as Managing Director – Strategy and M&A for LF Europe, where he completed several strategic deals in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the US to build a multi-billion on-shore distribution platform for LF Europe and expand the LF Beauty business in the US.

Rajesh joined IDS Group, the logistics and distribution arm of Fung Group, in 1999 as Group Development Director and subsequently as Chief Financial Officer in 2003 where he led the IPO initiative for a successful public listing of IDS in Hong Kong in 2004 as well as completing several M&A deals to grow the global footprint of IDS in Asia, Europe and the US.

Prior to joining the Fung Group Rajesh worked with Inchcape plc a global multinational in various management roles based in the Middle East, UK, Japan and Singapore. Prior to this he worked with PwC, the Big4 global accounting firm in the Middle East and India.

Rajesh holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from India and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant.

 

Rajesh Ranawat, Executive Director, Fung Strategic Investments

Rajesh is an accomplished senior executive who has worked with multi-billion dollar corporations in leadership positions working in several countries across diverse businesses and nationalities with a successful track record. He has more than 30 years of experience in the retail, distribution and logistics of fast-moving consumer goods, fashion and beauty products covering Asia, Middle East, Europe and the US.

Rajesh is currently a Director of Fung Strategic Holdings, the private investment arm of the families of Dr. Victor Fung and Dr. William Fung, the controlling shareholders of the Fung Group. In addition, he is the CEO of FSX Pte Ltd which is the holding company for the Fung family’s investments in India and South-East Asia as well as CEO of Fung Management MENA DMCC based out of Dubai. Rajesh was also a Non-executive Director on the Board of LF Logistics Ltd, which is a multinational logistics company and subsidiary of Li & Fung Group, which was acquired by Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, for a multi-billion dollar consideration.

Rajesh has been with the Fung Group for the last 25 years in various leadership positions covering operations, strategy, finance and M&A. He was recently the COO and Executive Director of LF Logistics and also Head of Global Freight Management from 2014 to 2019. Prior to this he was based in London as Managing Director – Strategy and M&A for LF Europe, where he completed several strategic deals in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the US to build a multi-billion on-shore distribution platform for LF Europe and expand the LF Beauty business in the US.

Rajesh joined IDS Group, the logistics and distribution arm of Fung Group, in 1999 as Group Development Director and subsequently as Chief Financial Officer in 2003 where he led the IPO initiative for a successful public listing of IDS in Hong Kong in 2004 as well as completing several M&A deals to grow the global footprint of IDS in Asia, Europe and the US.

Prior to joining the Fung Group Rajesh worked with Inchcape plc a global multinational in various management roles based in the Middle East, UK, Japan and Singapore. Prior to this he worked with PwC, the Big4 global accounting firm in the Middle East and India.

Rajesh holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from India and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant.

Rajesh Rao, Founder & CEO, Dhruva Interactive

Rajesh founded India's first games company, Dhruva Interactive, in 1997 and is acknowledged as a pioneer of the Games Industry in India. Dhruva, now in its 15th year of business, is India’s oldest and most experienced games company, developing games across multiple platforms and providing game production services to the global videogames industry, working with global majors like Microsoft, Capcom and Disney.

In 2009, Dhruva’s product group was spun out into a new casual games company called GameTantra, which is focused on creating gaming IP for international and Indian audiences.

Rajesh is active in promoting and growing the game industry in India, he is Chair, Games, NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Forum (NAGFO) and Member, FICCI Entertainment Committee.

Dhruva’s success has been chronicled in Tom Friedman’s bestselling book, ‘The World is Flat’.

Rajesh Razdan, Founder & CEO, mCarbon Tech Innovation Pvt. Ltd.

Rajesh Razdan founded mCarbon in early 2008, to create a compelling platform based offerings for Telco's to maximize revenues in the areas of usage and retention, customer life cycle and value management. An industry veteran of 16 years, his vision is to support global Telco's through technology based offerings to help them upsell and cross sell more enabling continuous usage and return based business models.
 
In his present capacity as CEO, he steers the company's strategic vision, corporate development and operations. In the past, Rajesh has served as a member of solution sales team at Nokia Siemens and handled APAC and India region. Formerly, he has held senior positions with leading Telecom Organizations including KPN International Consulting, Ericsson, and Roamware wherein he worked across business development, product management, channels, strategic alliances, marketing and strategy functions.

Rajesh S Shetty, Partner | Financial Advisory | M&A Transaction Services, Deloitte India

Rajesh is a qualified chartered accountant and has been with Deloitte for over 20 years and has been responsible for a number of financial due diligence and transaction support exercises. During his tenure with Deloitte, Rajesh has also spent 2 years in M&A transactions service practice in New York, Deloitte USA. Over the past 18 years Rajesh has worked extensively in the field of financial due diligence, valuation exercises, corporate investigations and other related business advisory and transaction support services.

Rajesh Sawhney, Co-founder, InnerChef India (P) Ltd | @Inner_Chef

Rajesh is the cofounder of India’s fastest growing food tech platform. Rajesh drives vision, strategy and growth at InnerChef.

Rajesh is also the founder of GSF, India’s leading multi-city Tech-Startup Accelerator for the brightest tech startups in India.

Rajesh is also known as one the most prominent angel investors in India and has made investments in over 50 startups which include Viki (acquired by Rakutan for USD 225M), Little Eye Labs (acquired by Facebook), Mobstac, Pokkt, Silverpush, HackerEarth, Browntape, Overcart, Flinto, Timesaverz, Instalively, Dailyrounds, etc.

Rajesh’s journey has been a continuum of re-invention waves. He brought private radio (Times FM) to India in the early nineties, redefining Indian youth culture. He was at the cusp of early Internet culture in India in the early 2000, building Times Internet Ltd the most valuable Internet business in India in 2005 (funded by Sequoia). Subsequently, Rajesh as the founding President of Reliance Entertainment, was at the center of a massive transformation of the Indian film industry, where he oversaw the corporatization of mom and pop Bollywood businesses into a multi-billion dollar industry. He spearheaded the biggest investment deal worth USD 1B (Dreamworks) between Hollywood and Bollywood.

Rajesh also advises Trident Capital, a prominent venture firm based in Palo Alto, California and represents them on the boards of Microland and Nielsoft.

Rajesh is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School and has a fellowship from the London School of Economics.

@rajeshsawhney