Our speakers

Rishika Chandan, Co-Founder & CEO, The Home Salon | @The_Home_Salon

Rishika Chandan is Co-Founder & CEO at The Home Salon - an on-demand beauty & wellness platform. She started the venture in 2014, with a simple vision of making grooming a part of every woman’s routine without her having to go out of her way. A deep-rooted belief in equal opportunities, The Home Salon provides a platform, brand and training to professional stylists who do not want to work salon timings, while offering customers access to the best-in-class salon services at home.

Prior to The Home Salon, Rishika was an investment banker for 7+ years. She holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst

@rishikachandan

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, OYO Rooms

Ritesh Agarwal is the Founder & CEO of OYO Rooms. OYO Rooms is India’s largest branded network of hotels and is today present in more than 80 cities with 12000 rooms.

Ritesh embarked on his entrepreneurial journey when he was only 17 years old. A college drop-out, he launched his first start-up Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. in the year 2012. Oravel was designed as a platformto enable listing and booking of budget accommodation.Being an avid traveler, he soon realized that the budget hospitality sector lacked predictability and presented the consumer, experiences that were very varied. Therefore, he pivoted Oravel to OYO Rooms in 2013 with the key proposition of offering affordable and standardized accommodation to anyone, anywhere looking for a place to stay when not at home. Around the same time he was also selected into the Thiel Fellowship, a program started by Paypal founder, Peter Thiel. He recently graduated from the program and is the first Indian to do so.

As CEO, Ritesh is instrumental in setting the overall strategic vision and direction for the company. Two of his key focus areas are product/technology initiatives and generating/monitoring demand.

Ritesh and OYO Rooms has won national and international accolades including BusinessWorld Young Entrepreneur Award, TIE Lumis Business Excellence Awards, India InternationalTravel Mart Award and Lufthansa ET Now Runway to Success Award.

His other achievements include a book called ‘Kaleidoscope’ written by him, which has around 25 award winning short stories. Other than that, he loves travelling and going for long drives to unwind.

Ritesh Banglani, Partner, Helion Advisors Pvt. Ltd

Ritesh Banglani has 16 years of experience in venture capital, business planning, product management and field operation roles in India and abroad. He serves on the board of Truly Madly, Housing, Talentpad, Lifecell, Mast Kalandar and Dentys, and helps manage the investment in EyeQ.  He previously served on the board of TaxiforSure, which merged with Ola Cabs in 2015.

Prior to joining Helion in 2010, Ritesh was a Vice President at IDG Ventures India, where he focused on early stage investments in internet, mobile and digital media businesses. He was a Director on the board of Ozone Media, and an observer on the board of Kreeda Games.

Prior to this, Ritesh was a Product Manager at Adobe Systems, where he managed the Shockwave and Contribute product lines, and focused on developing new monetization models for digital media platforms. Previously he managed the mobile games business of July Systems, a venture-funded mobile VAS company, and deployed popular mobile games offerings with US and European mobile operators.

Between 1999 and 2003, Ritesh held various field operation roles with Synopsys Inc. in India, Singapore and Europe.

Ritesh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA from INSEAD. He serves as Guest Faculty at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, where he teaches Innovation Strategy.

Ritesh Banglani, Partner, Stellaris Ventures

Ritesh is a partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, where he invests in technology companies in Healthcare, Travel and Financial Services. He has a strong interest in companies solving uniquely Indian problems, and those that apply new technology to their industry for the first time.

Ritesh has spent the last decade in the venture capital industry and participated in the entire VC lifecycle. Prior to Stellaris, he was a Partner at Helion, where he invested in online services and healthcare companies like Taxiforsure, Lifecell and Trulymadly. Before he moved to venture capital in 2007, he spent 8 years in tech operating roles in India and abroad.

He has a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from INSEAD, and serves as Adjunct Faculty at IIM Bangalore.

Ritesh Chandra, Executive Director and Head - Consumer, FIG and Business Services Group, Avendus

Ritesh heads the Consumer, FIG and Business Services Group. He has over 20 years of experience in executing M&A, PE and structured financing transactions. Ritesh has extensive experience on transactions in consumer products, financial services and media. He worked with Credit Suisse prior to joining Avendus. Ritesh holds an MBA from FMS, Delhi and a BE from the University of Delhi.

Ritesh Chandra, Executive Director and Head, Consumer Group, Avendus Capital

Ritesh heads the Financial Services and Consumer Group, and is based out of New Delhi. He has over 20 years of experience in executing M&A, PE and structured financing transactions. He has extensive experience on transactions in consumer products, financial services and media. He worked with Credit Suisse prior to joining Avendus.

Ritesh holds an MBA from FMS, Delhi and a BE from the University of Delhi

Ritesh Sachdev, SVP & Head Commercial Leasing and Asset Management, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd.

Ritesh Vig, Founder, Veracity Leading Edge (VLE)

Ritesh Vig is the founder of Veracity Leading Edge (VLE). He has over 15 years of experience in management consultancy and strategic finance. Prior to founding VLE, Ritesh has won recognition for playing instrumental role in well-known businesses like Reliance, Bharti and Gulf Petro group. Ritesh is an Alumini of CIMA London, and Keylogges. His passion for Strategic Advisory (Business Model, Valuation & Exit) to mid scale company and start ups and new projects are the key to his success.

Ritu Verma , Co-founder & Managing Partner, Ankur Capital | @ankurcapital

Ritu Verma is one of the co-founders at Ankur. She is passionate about bringing innovation from lab to the market and did that for a decade across corporates - Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD. If Ritu had any spare time she’d love to travel to all ends of the earth and read a few books.

@rituverma01

Riyaaz Amlani, CEO and Managing Director, Impresario

Riyaaz Amlani is an entrepreneur and a restaurateur based in Mumbai, India. He is the CEO and MD of Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. and the President of NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India). He is often referred to as eatopian, hospitality wiz and a coffee baron.

Starting out as an outsider to the hospitality industry, today Riyaaz is highly respected and well-known in the restaurant business in India. Having sold shoes as a teenager, Riyaaz completed his education in UCLA with a Masters in Entertainment Management. Paving his way through the business, he soon started working as the entertainment consultant for many location based entertainment centers. During this period, Amlani contributed to the building of India’s leading Family Entertainment Centers as well as set up a wellness centre. He soon took over the reins of a leading media company, but gave it all up to open a café partnership with Kiran Salaskar. His vision was a cafe that offered an experience beyond the ordinary. This gave birth to his maiden venture Mocha, considered a pioneering venture in the café industry.

Riyaaz Amlani has been recognized as the ‘Best Restaurateur’ by 'Time Out Food Awards 2011'. All his restaurants have not only won various awards in India including Best New Restaurant, Best Bar, Best European Restaurant and Best Coffee Shop, but have also been acknowledged internationally by being nominated for UK’s Restaurant & Bar Design Award as well as shortlisted for Miele’s Top 50 Restaurants in Asia and recognized in Time Out Mumbai’s Top 10 Best Restaurateurs in India.