Our speakers

S. Venkatraman, Partner, Rabo Equity Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

S. Venkatraman is a Partner & Head of Mumbai office with Rabo Equity Advisors, the Investment Advisor to India Agri Business Fund 1 and 2. This is the first private equity fund in Asia dedicated to the Food & Agribusiness sector. At Rabo Equity, Venkat is the senior member of the investment team, involved in deal ideation, origination, evaluation, investment, execution and portfolio management.

Venkat has a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Venkat has over 22 years of work experience which comprises
Six  years with Rabo Equity Advisors Pvt. Ltd
Eight and half years with Rabo India Finance Ltd (100% subsidiary of Rabobank International), where he headed the Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory team (FAR).
7 years in the consumer marketing space, spread across Johnson & Johnson and Marico Ltd, both based in Mumbai (India). 1 year with Essar Steel in the Project Management team

Venkat has a sound understanding of the sector dynamics across food and agribusiness sectors (F&A). He has authored publications in all these sectors. He has also spoken at various industry forums and showcased his sector knowledge. He has also advised various domestic and international corporates on entry strategy, market study and implementation assistance in the F&A space.

S.K Roongta, CMD, National Seed Corporations Ltd

Shri S.K.Roongta is an MBA (Marketing) from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pillani.  He has got rich experience of having worked both in private sector as well as public sector companies during the last 38 years. Before joining National Seeds Corporation (NSC) as its Chairman cum Managing Director on Ist April, 2009, he had worked with two other PSUs viz.

NationalTextile Corporation and Cotton Corporation of India for about 33 years. During his tenure, the turnover of NSC has more than doubled during the last three years.  Under his stewardship,  NSC was elevated from Schedule ‘C’ to Schedule ‘B’ and awarded the Mini Ratna Category-I status by the Department of Public Enterprises and Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India during the year 2010-11.

NSC was also given SCOPE Award for Excellence and Outstanding contribution to the Public Sector Management-Institutional-III for the year 2009-10 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 31.01.2012. Shri Roongta is also on the Board of Directors of seven State Seed Corporations.

S.K Sharma, MD, SBA Hydro & Renewable Energy

S.Sivakumar, CEO, Times Private Treaties

Sivakumar is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India as well as Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. He has been with the BCCL group for over 19 Years and has handled diversified functions such as Finance, M & A, Marketing & Sales and now leads the Times Private Treaties Business.

At the BCCL group he has played a pivotal role in all its new business initiates i.e. Internet, Radio, OOH Ventures etc and is on Board of some of these companies. Sivakumar also works very actively with the Vice Chairman of the group, Mr. Samir Jain in ideating, incubating and implementing ideas for BCCL media business.

Sivakumar pursues his hobby of physical exercise and spirituality which he believes are essential for fitness of mind and body. He enjoys his occasional treks to the Himalayas.

Saad Siddiqui, General Partner, Titanium Ventures

Saahil Goel, Co-founder & CEO, ShipRocket

Saahil is the CEO and Co-Founder of BigFoot Retail Solutions Pvt Ltd, which is an eCommerce enablement company which is a parent to KartRocket, ShipRocket and Kraftly. As a CEO, Saahil is perpetually questioning everything and trying to break existing barriers by coming up with unconventional solutions from ground up.

A Bs in Business with an MBA & MS from the University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Saahil started his career as a Business Analyst at Max Life Insurance. Prior to founding BigFoot Retail in 2012, Saahil was working as a ‘Technology and Process Consultant’ for SDLC Partners (with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield). Before this, he was a founding team member with Kasper Consulting.

An avid fan of the ‘internet’, Saahil has a knack for coding and had also built several websites since his school days. Saahil is adept at building technology architecture for scale, creating security systems, automation, algorithms and has a keen interest in utilizing artificial intelligence for business growth and operational excellence.

Saahil Goel, Co-founder & CEO, Kraftly

Mr. Saahil Goel is the CEO and Co-Founder of BigFoot Retail Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an e-commerce enablement company that owns Kraftly, KartRocket and ShipRocket. He is also fondly referred to as the de-facto CPO, given his passion for products, growth hacking and technology. As a startup CEO, Mr. Goel’s chief responsibilities include questioning everything that impacts the business, breaking existing barriers, practicing and developing unconventional solutions from the ground up. Along with overall management of the company, he actively heads product strategy, user experience and growth initiatives. In Business with an MBA and MS from the University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA, he started his career as a Business Analyst at Max Life Insurance. Before conceptualizing BigFoot Retail in 2011, Mr. Goel was working as a Technology and Process Consultant for SDLC Partners (with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield). He was also a part of the founder's teams of Kasper Consulting. With product innovation deeply embedded in his very business approach, Mr. Goel’s vision for Kraftly is to scale the user base and bring in deeper technology innovation. He believes that cutting edge technology, intuitive product and data intelligence are differentiators for any business in today’s age.  Krafty will be focusing on the Indian sellers' market, providing any merchant of any size with an e-commerce enablement, as per their needs and requirements. It aims to become the largest seller enablement company in India, and eventually take on the global markets. A philanthropist at heart, Mr. Saahil Goel has worked with Habitat for Humanity in the US during his college days. Now he wants to give back to the community through Kraftly and has several NGOs as sellers like Rangsutra, Peeli Dori, Raah etc. on the platform.

Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder, Yatra

Sachid Madan, MD, Technico Agri Sciences Ltd

Sachid Madan is Director of Technico Pty Ltd, Australia (Technico), a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, and a part of its Agri Business. He is also the Chairman of the Agri Committee of FICCI.

ITC's US$900 million Agribusiness Division (ABD), which Mr. Sivakumar leads, is engaged in sourcing a variety of agricultural products, commodity exports, rural marketing and specialty retailing. ITC Ltd. works predominantly in agriculture and rural India with over a century's experience in engaging with farmers.

Previously he was the VP at Agro Tech Foods Ltd., a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods Ltd., for 6 years, CEO at Mafatlal Denim Ltd. for 3 years, and Operations Manager at Hindustan Unilever Ltd. for 13 years.

Sachid is a Commerce graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce.  He is also a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India & Company Secretary from Institute of Company Secretaries of India. 

Sachin Bansal, Ceo & Co-Founder, ,Flipkart.Com

Sachin Bansal, 28, is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Flipkart.com. Sachin hails from Chandigarh and did his schooling there before pursuing his engineering at IIT Delhi. He started his career at Techspan, a systems-integration and consulting firm, delivering business and IT solutions. In 2006 he moved to Amazon.com, after realising that his interests lay in developing software products.

After a short stint at Amazon, Sachin and Binny Bansal (also from Chandigarh and classmates at IIT Delhi) launched Flipkart.com, in 2007, with the intention to be the leading e-commerce destination in India. The experience at Amazon and personal experiences with the Indian e-commerce market helped Sachin define Flipkart’s service offering. Flipkart was and is about creating an e-commerce portal that offered superior customer service and delivered what it promised. Starting with books, Flipkart is today India’s largest online bookstore and have recently forayed into new categories such as Music, Movies, Games and Mobile Phones. Sachin is a connoisseur of electronic gadgets and if he has his way, Flipkart will have reasonable chunk of its revenue in the coming years, coming in from electronic goods.