Our speakers

Sandeep Murthy, Partner, LightBox | @lbvc

As an early investor in InMobi, InfoEdge and Shopclues, three of India's billion dollar technology companies, Sandeep Murthy is one of the builders of India's Internet economy. And he hasn't just seen the highs and lows play out as an investor, but actually roughed it out in operational roles including one as the CEO of Cleartrip in 2006 for three years.

A dreamer from the start, who doesn’t believe in choosing between “this or that” he did his undergrad in both business and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Like all good Penn grads he dove into investment banking. However, since it was the height of the dot.com boom, he did it a little differently by moving out to Palo Alto, California to join CSFB Technology Group.

After teaming up with a friend to build a digital music company that was incubated by Sony Music – 10 years too early. He ended up selling the company to Sony after the Internet bubble burst. After a few years of living the Bay Area dream, he moved to New York to join InterActive Corp (IAC) the owners of Expedia, TicketMaster, Home Shopping Network where he helped launch Gifts.com. He started to explore the India technology opportunity and ultimately moved to Mumbai to manage investments for Sherpalo Ventures, a fund based out of Menlo Park in California. Today he's a co-founder and partner at Lightbox, a Mumbai-based venture capital firm investing in Indian consumer technology companies. He has raised over $350M from leading investors. His most recent investments include Droom, Faasos, Furlenco and AI-platform Embibe, which got a $185MM investment commitment from Reliance, India's internet super power. This is the largest AI investment in edtech any where in the world. Most of his time is spent figuring how to make something unprecedented happen. With an all-in, nothing-held-back style, he loves diving in, getting to the heart of a matter, trying new things and getting as many people as possible involved. This approach helps to find multiple solutions: some surprising, others straightforward. In a somewhat unpredictable market, Sandeep’s investment success stems from a combination of deep product instinct and unconventional thinking, that has been the basis of all his investments — from pre-revenue startups to multi-billion-dollar businesses.

Sandeep Naik, Managing Director, General Atlantic

Sandeep Naik is a Managing Director at General Atlantic and serves on the firms Executive Committee. He is located in General Atlantic's Mumbai office, where he serves as head of operations in India and Asia Pacific. Mr. Naik manages and oversees all of GA’s investments in the region, which include BillDesk, House of Anita Dongre, Citius Tech, IndusInd and National Stock Exchange.

Previously, Mr. Naik served as a partner and co-head of the India office for Apax Partners, leading their investments in healthcare, financial & business services and retail & consumer sectors. Prior to joining Apax, he was a Global Marketing Manager at Medtronic Inc, a scientist at Mayo Clinic and a Consultant with McKinsey. He is also the co-founder of a medical device start up firm, InfraScan Inc., which is focused on detecting bleeding inside the brain using a handheld device. Mr. Naik is an avid community worker. Among other philanthropic endeavors, he co-founded ToolBox India, an organization that brings professionals and non-profits together to improve productivity and efficiency within the social sector.

Mr. Naik holds a BTech in Instrumentation Engineering from the University of Mumbai, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Medical College of Virginia and an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Naik was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served on the Global Agenda Council of ‘New Order of Economic Thinking’. Mr. Naik is also a member on the Wharton Asia Board.

Sandeep Naik, Co-Head, Apax Partners

Sandeep Naik works for Apax Partners, a global Private Equity firm and is currently the Co-Head of the India office leading their Investments in Healthcare, Financial & Business Services and Retail & Consumer group. Prior to joining Apax, Sandeep was a Global Marketing Manager at Medtronic (a leader in medical devices), Scientist at Mayo Clinic and a Consultant with McKinsey. He is also the co-founder of a medical device start up firm, InfraScan Inc. which is focused on detecting bleeding inside the brain using a handheld device. Sandeep is an avid community worker and amongst other things has co-founded ToolBox India an organization that brings together professionals and non-profits to improve productivity and efficiency within the social sector. Sandeep has done his BTech in Instrumentation Engineering from University of Mumbai, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Medical College of Virginia and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Sandeep was also recently selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Sandeep Pendharkar, Sr. Director & General Manager, Cloud Services HPE India

Sandeep Reddy, MD, Peepul Capital Advisors

Sandeep is the co-founder of Peepul Capital. Prior to the launch of Peepul Capital in 2000, he had 10 years of experience in Strategy Consulting with PriceWaterHouse in San Francisco and with Andersen Consulting in London.

Sandeep has been one of the early participants in the rapidly evolving Indian Private Equity industry having been active for over ten years. He takes overall responsibility in defining and executing Peepul Capital's strategy. In that role he has spawned and built a number of entities as well as driven migration through their lifecycles.

Sandeep received a BS in Computer Science and Finance from Utah State University and an MBA from IMD (Switzerland).

Sandeep Reddy, Co-founder, Peepul Capital

Sandeep Reddy is a Founder and Managing Director of Peepul Capital, an India-centric Private Equity investor with investments focused on execution-risk. He has been one of the early participants in the rapidly evolving Indian Private Equity industry having been active for close to two decades. He takes overall responsibility in defining and executing Peepul’s strategy. In that role, he has spawned and built a number of entities as well as driven migration through their lifecycles. Peepul Capital has been involved in sponsoring over 38 companies.

Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO, Sohan Lal Commodity Management

Mr. Sandeep, an MBA from Delhi is a managing partner with Sohan Lal since 1996 and has played a key role in shaping the affairs of the company.

His knowledge about commodities is widely recognised. He was a member of the executive committee on Warehouse Development and Regulation Act (WDRA). He is also member of the FICCI committee which was appointed by Government of India to study the United States of America’s warehousing model.  

Sandeep has been conferred with Certification on US Warehouse Receipt System from the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and the Texas a & M University

His views on agricultural commodities are frequently referred to in The Economic Times, CNBC Awaz, Business Standard and other leading news channels.

Sandeep Singh, Healthcare Principal, Eight Roads

Sandeep is a Principal with the Healthcare team at Eight Roads Ventures (India). With over 7 years’ experience in investing, Sandeep specialises in the healthcare sector, particularly in health tech, healthcare services, consumer health and India pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining Eight Roads, he was with Matrix Partners India where he also looked at consumer goods and services companies.

Before stepping into the venture capital world, Sandeep spent 6 years in consulting having worked with both the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Co. where he specialised in the healthcare and consumer practices.

Sandeep holds a Post Graduate Degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore where he was recognised for his achievements and was part of the Director’s Merit List.  He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Technology from IIT Kharagpur and was awarded the Institute Silver Medal and the A. C. Sarkar Memorial Gold Medal.

Sandeep Singhal, Co-founder & MD, WestBridge Advisors Private Limited

Sandeep Singhal has 11 years of venture capital and private equity investing experience in India. He has led investments/served on the board of several public and private companies that include Dr. Lal Pathlabs, JustDial, eClerx, Infoedge, Stovekraft, Shaadi, Prakash Snacks, Nazara Technologies, GVK Bio Sciences, AppLabs and Carzonrent.

 

Sandeep was also a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. Earlier, he worked at BCG where he advised several mid-market Indian companies on their product and marketing strategies. Prior to BCG, Sandeep worked with Hindustan Lever Limited where he was instrumental in eleven product launches targeting Indian consumer segments that have contributed significantly to the company's business.

 

Sandeep has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, an MS in molecular simulation from the University of Illinois, and a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi.

Sandeep Singhal, Co-Founder, Nexus Venture Partners

Sandeep is co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners.

Sandeep has been an entrepreneur and a pioneer of Venture Capital in India. He was co-founder & CEO of Medusind Solutions, one of the leading healthcare outsourcing companies in India. He also was the co-founder of eVentures India, a leading venture firm focused on early stage ventures in India. Several of his earlier investments have had successful exits, including CustomerAsset (acquired by Firstsource), Mentorix Solutions (acquired by Lionbridge), Intigma (acquired by Emptoris), and MakeMyTrip (sale to SAIF Partners). Sandeep has also held senior roles at McKinsey & Company, Digital Equipment and EDA Systems.

Sandeep has an MBA (with Distinction) from The Wharton School with a dual Major in Finance and Marketing, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is on the Board of TiE Mumbai, and is actively involved with the Entrepreneurs Organization and the Wharton and Stanford India Alumni Associations.