Our speakers

Rakesh Pozhath, Partner, Bain & Company (Moderator)

Rakesh Pozhath is a Partner in Bain & Company’s Bengaluru office and is a leading member in the Financial Services practice in India. He has deep expertise in payments, transaction banking, banking tech, blockchain, fintech, and retail/SME lending. He is also an active contributor to the firm's Customer and Enterprise Technology practices. With nearly a decade of experience in management consulting, Rakesh has worked closely with multiple global and Indian payment infrastructure providers and large banks on real-time A2A payments, credit cards, and payment tech. He has led multi-year customer experience and digital transformation programs for top-tier regional and local banks, serving clients across India, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Rakesh has notable experience in advising clients on a variety of issues, including growth strategy, customer experience transformation, digital transformation, new product design and monetization, operating model redesign, and performance improvement. He earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a B. Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Rakesh Pozhath, Partner, Bain & Company

Rakesh R Sony, Global Head - Strategy and M&A, Tata Consumer Products Limited

Rakesh Sony, Director, Proterra Investment Advisors India Pvt. Ltd.

Rakesh is the Director and head of India operations of Proterra investment partners. Proterra Investment Partners is an alternative investment manager focused on private equity investments in the natural resources sectors of agriculture, food, and metals and mining. It manages ~$2.2 bn across various strategies. 

Rakesh has over 18 years of experience of investments in mid market private equity space. Prior to Proterra, he was the partner at Motilal Oswal PE. Rakesh is a qualified CA and a graduate from St Xavier's Kolkata.

Rakesh Sony, Director, Motilal Oswal Private Equity

Rakesh Sony joined MOPE in October 2008 and actively involved in fund deployment and portfolio monitoring. With over 12 years of experience in capital market, he has expertise in enabling closely held businesses evolve into professionally run corporate organization through pragmatic resolution of family ownership, succession planning, corporate governance and the delegation of management responsibilities. He has entrepreneurial experience as co-founder and Managing Director of Microsec Capital- the largest investment bank in Eastern India

At MOPE, Rakesh is responsible for deal sourcing ,investing, portfolio company monitoring and effectuating exit the portfolio companies. He represents the Fund on the board of Parag Milk Foods, Effort BPO, Powermech, Mrs Bector Foods and Minda Industries

Rakesh is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is  a graduate of the prestigious St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

Rakesh Sony, Global Head of Strategy and M&A, Tata Global Beverages

Rakesh is Global Head- Strategy and M&A at TGB, responsible for development and deployment of strategies for the Organization, delivery of new businesses/acquisitions/ alliances to drive the sustainable, profitable growth agenda of our Company.

Rakesh joined Tata Global Beverages in 2017 and is based out of Mumbai. Rakesh with over 20 years of experience, has held key leadership roles in the Financial Services industry such as the Director & India head of Proterra Investment Partners and Partner at Motilal Oswal PE Fund. He has led over a dozen successful investments in the food and consumer space in India and has assisted Companies in their strategic transformation process.

He is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata.

Rakesh Sony, Director, Black River Food Fund

Rakesh is Director at the Private Equity arm of Black River Asset Management. The PE funds currently manage close to $2.0 billion across the food, agriculture, metals & mining sectors.

Black River Food Fund makes growth equity investments in three food industry sectors: protein production, value-added food processing and supply chain management. We believe that the continued urbanization of emerging markets, an expanding middle class, shifting dietary preferences toward protein consumption, and the increased importance of safe, high-quality food are trends that will drive long-term growth in these sectors. We invest in leading producers/processors with forward-thinking managers who can scale rapidly and efficiently, implement food safety/quality systems, and manage risk throughout the value chain. Our geographic mandate is global emerging markets with a focus on emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Rakesh has over 15 years of experience. Prior to Blackriver, he was the partner at Motilal Oswal PE, a sector agnostic mid market fund. At Motilal, Rakesh has made multiple investments in the food sector including Parag Milk Food and Mrs Bectors Food Limited.

Rakesh Verma, Founder and Chairman, MapmyIndia

Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, MapmyIndia

n 1994, Rakesh pioneered the digital maps and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) industry by setting out on a mission to digitally map out India. And since 2004, MapmyIndia has revolutionized the consumer navigation market in India by releasing innovative products and services, starting with the internet portal MapmyIndia.com and recently launching in-car and mobile phone GPS navigation.

In 1990, Rakesh quit a successful career with General Motors in the US to return to India, and co-founded CE Info Systems with his wife, Rashmi. In 1993, he was exposed to the emerging field of GIS (Geographic Information Systems), and recognized the potential benefits of GIS to businesses, the government and individual people. Armed with this foresight and a desire to participate in India's development, Rakesh led MapmyIndia's pioneering effort in creating a complete digital map of India. The effort was started from scratch because no digital maps were available for India at that time. Today, MapmyIndia is a leader in the Indian mapping and navigation space, with the most comprehensive and accurate repository of digital map data for India.

Rakesh was recently appointed as a member to the Government of India's Committee on Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

Rakshat Kapoor, Partner - Private Debt, Centrum Alternatives

Rakshat Kapoor has over 18 years of experience in structured credit. He is responsible for the overall strategy and investments in the credit business. Prior to joining Centrum, he was with Nomura Securities where he worked in Private Credit, Debt Capital Markets and Investment Banking Divisions. Prior to that, he was with Deutsche Bank’s structured credit investments and ICICI Bank’s structured finance team. He has worked on turnaround situations & restructurings, distressed debt and private equity. He has led investments across industries – infrastructure, cement, industrials, manufacturing, textiles, oil & gas and telecom and his experience includes origination and providing customized financial solutions across the capital structure. Rakshat received his Chartered Accountancy from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from Delhi University.