Our speakers

Smitesh Valanju, CISO, Tata CLiQ

Smriti Tomar, Founder & CEO, Stack Finance

Smriti is CEO and Founder of Stack Finance, where she is building an extraordinary product that will revolutionize personal finance in India. Stack is India’s first smart app made exclusively for young earners to help them to stop wasting money and start making better financial decisions. Stack is a data-driven money management platform that automates savings, investments and financial planning while targeting lifestyle and customer-centric offerings keeping in mind the needs of young professionals.

Smriti is an avid public speaker and has given numerous key note speeches at some of the most prestigious institutions and organizations across India like Economic Times, Amity University, Indian Institute of Technology Allahabad, BIT Mesra etc., which are mostly aimed at creating financial awareness and knowledge on fintech and emerging technologies.

She has been recognized by YourStory as top 5 young women entrepreneurs and also selected under $2Mn pledge by Tinder as top 10 women led startups, and recently got profiled by Fintech Finance (UK’s leading publication) alongside Anne Boden founder of Starling Bank- link

At Stack Finance, Smriti is envisioning a personal finance experience that’s never been seen before. She is a B.tech graduate from National Institute of Technology Bhopal and has had experience in data analytics field while working for Citibank Banamex, one of the largest commercial banks in Latin America to build risk strategies. She is also a blockchain developer and expert certified by IBM and The Hong Kong University. She holds proclivity for project development and management at large. She has also authored a patent on a system for secure exchange of traded securities and method thereof. She has been an avid investor since her teenage. She believes in value investing, and is a follower of John Bogle principles. Prior to this venture, she has worked as a data analyst at EXL services, focused in overseas finance and banking industry, particularly Citibank, Latin America.

Before joining EXL, she had worked at a SaaS based B2B company, Appointy Software Inc. that provides a booking platform for all professionals spread across 110 countries. She worked as a business development associate, her projects involved analyzing and designing marketing campaign (inbound) to get insights for better lead qualification, creating landing pages and CRM system, designing models for user research and feedback.

She is devoted to and excel in three areas—each area strengthening the others: marketing and product management; creating a financial investment venture that better serves customers profitably; women’s business success.

She has also gained huge media recognition, not only in India but also in China, Japan, Hong Kong and
other parts of Asia.

Sneha Shanti kumar Shah, Senior Assistant Editor, VCCircle (Moderator)

Snehasish Dutta, , Persistent Systems

Snehita Nukalapati, Investment Team, Bharat Innovation Fund

Snigdhaneel Satpathy, Partner, Saraf and Partners

Sofi Bergkvist, Senior Researcher, Center for Emerging Markets Solutions, ISB

Sofi Bergkvist is the Managing Director of ACCESS Health International, India. An economist with a focus on efficient health care delivery, Sofi has a Master of Science degree in International Economics from Stockholm School of Economics and has studied at the MBA program at McGill in Montreal.

She manages the health care initiative collaborating with the Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions (CEMS) has a special interest in health finance. Prior to this, Sofi was a health care analyst for a private equity firm with investments in India. She has also worked in management consulting on outsourcing of public sector services, with UNFPA in Malawi and carried out a cost-effectiveness study of the national Road Map for reduced maternal mortality.

Sofi has also worked as an advisor to the European Commission's Delegation to the United Nations on sustainable development issues.

Sohil Chand, MD, Norwest Venture Partners | @NorwestVP

Sohil brings to NVP India more than 13 years of financial, investment banking and private equity investment experience from leading global financial institutions. Based in the NVP India Mumbai office, Sohil serves as an advisor on growth equity investments in Indian companies across a wide range of sectors, including telecom, technology, financial services, infrastructure and manufacturing. Sohil advised NVP India’s investments in Asian Genco Pte Ltd. (AGPL), NSE (National Stock Exchange of India, Ltd.), Nueclear Healthcare Limited, Sadbhav, Snowman Logistics, and Thyrocare. Sohil is also a board observer for NationWide Primary Healthcare Services.

Prior to joining NVP India, Sohil was an Executive Director in Goldman Sachs’ Asian Special Situations Group, a balance sheet investing group with over $4 billion under management. Sohil was the first executive recruited for the group’s India business in 2006 and became part of a five-member team in Mumbai tasked with building and running the India business. In this role with Goldman Sachs, Sohil was involved in making over $300 million of private equity and PIPE investments in India.

Sohini Rajola, SVP & Head - Electronic Banking, Axis Bank

Sohini Rajola is the Head of Electronic Banking Group at Axis Bank, the third largest private sector bank in India. She leads the bank’s business across all electronic and digital channels including Internet banking, Mobile Banking and ATMs in addition to driving the Bank’s Customer Initiatives encompassing the pan bank loyalty program and campaigns.

Prior to this she was the head of Cards and Merchant Acquiring business for Axis Bank. She launched the Debit, Credit and Pre Paid Cards at Axis Bank and has been instrumental in driving the Bank’s strategy around payment businesses with many product and process innovations to her credit. Axis Bank is today the fastest growing credit card issuer, the fourth largest debit card issuer and the second largest merchant acquiring bank in the country.

Axis Bank was the first new generation private sector bank to begin operations in 1993 and Sohini joined the Bank in 1998 in their Branch Banking division. She was part of the team that set up the Retail Banking Department at the Bank and launched numerous savings account products for different customer segments including Defence, Corporate Payrolls etc. She was also instrumental in setting up the direct sales channel for origination of Bank Accounts.

She is a B.Sc. graduate with a Management Degree from Symbiosis Institute Pune in 1998.

Sohini Rajola, Head - Digital Banking, Axis Bank

Sohini Rajola is leading digital strategy and transformation at Axis Bank, the third largest private sector bank in India. Her 17+ years of professional experience spans across Payments, Retail Banking and Digital Business.

Her current responsibility at Axis encompasses all digital properties including mobile and internet banking, digital wallet, ATM and branch automation, customer campaigns and loyalty program. Her role extends to driving new technology adoption and nurturing start up initiatives and promoting design thinking.

Prior to the digital avatar, she has extensive experience in the payments business having launched and led the cards and merchant acquiring businesses for Axis bank. She is an MBA from Symbiosis Institute Pune. An indulgent but strict mother of two girls, she loves to play sudoku, scrabble or anything that challenges the mind in her spare time.

@RajolaSohini