Our speakers

Sid Khanna, Chairman, India Equity Partners

Sid is the Chairman of India Equity Partners (IEP) India operations and a Managing Director of IEP. He has over 30 years of financial services, strategic advisory, operations and outsourcing experience. Sid joined Accenture (Arthur Andersen) in 1977 and spent the next ten years working for major public sector clients and almost all major banks and insurance companies in the UK. He was admitted to the partnership in 1987. Sid moved to India in 1987 to establish the India operations of Accenture and pioneered the consulting model in India. He has worked with almost all major Indian and multinational business groups. Sid was responsible for the start of Accenture offshore IT and BPO in India, which has since grown to over 35,000 people.

In 2001, Sid moved to London as a global managing partner. He retired from Accenture in 2006 and currently resides in Mumbai, India. Sid serves on the boards of United Spirits, Peninsula Holdings and HSBC Insurance. He is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and received a Bachelor in Arts from St. Stephens College, New Delhi.

Sid Talwar, Co-founder and Partner, Lightbox | @lbvc

Sid is a co-founder and partner at Lightbox. He moved to India in 2001 to found Evolv, a vocational training company funded by Singapore Technologies – their first early stage investment in the sub-continent. Over the next 6 years, Sid grew Evolv to 300 employees training and assessing over 20,000 people a year across 200 cities in South Asia, East Asia and the Middle East. In 2007, he sold Evolv to NIIT - Asia's largest training company. Sid worked with NIIT for the next 3 years, heading Evolv, as well as Litmus and Uniqua (NIIT's foray into assessments and JV with Genpact). Over ten years, Sid became a master in edtech, especially in the context of India, SE Asia and emerging markets.

An entrepreneur at heart, Sid left NIIT to get back in to the startup game. Over the next few years leading up to Lightbox, he has advised several startups, angel funds, and a very special NGO called Magic Bus.

At Lightbox Sid’s role is as much about building companies as it is about bringing people together to make new things happen. He writes regularly and passionately on the dynamics of the new economy and is an influential mentor and voice on entrepreneurship in India.

As enterprising at play as he is at work, Sid recently teamed up with restaurateurs and investors to launch a series of award–winning restaurants in Delhi.

Siddarth Menon, CMO, Drums Food International

Siddarth Menon is Chief Marketing Officer at Drums Food International, makers of India’s first Greek yogurt – Epigamia. At Epigamia, Sid’s role is to drive growth through strategic initiatives that bring the brand essence to life across online and offline channels.

He drives awareness, experience and advocacy of Epigamia through an integrated marketing approach and uses consumer driven insights to influence product innovation and roll-out strategy.

Before joining Drums Food, Siddarth headed the North business for Colgate-Palmolive where he generated market share growth through his detailed go-to-market strategy and execution. Prior to that he was spearheading growth in volume and revenue as Marketing Manager for Colgate Dental Cream, Colgate Palmolive’s largest brand.

Siddarth holds a B. Comm degree from MMK College in Mumbai and an MBA from JBIMS Mumbai.

Siddarth Pai, Founding Partner, Chief Financial Officer & ESG Officer, 3one4 Capital

Siddarth leads a team of professionals and business analysts that manage and oversee the Fund’s end-to-end processes from deal evaluations, diligence, structuring, legal and finance functions. The team has developed deep domain expertise in the Indian market across these functions, leading to the creation of several playbooks that have become industry standard.

Siddarth also contributes actively to the growth of the AIF industry in India. He’s been the youngest Executive council member of the Indian Venture Capital Association and twice-running co-chair of the regulatory affairs committee. He’s worked across government departments and regulators on matters related to the industry and having He’s an expert council member of iSPIRT, an Indian software and product advocacy think tank and the founding member and secretary of the PEVCFOA, a collective of the CFOs of Venture and Private Equity Funds investing in India.

He was awarded the “35 under 35” recognition by the Entrepreneur Magazine in 2017 and the “40 under 40” Alternative Investments Professionals of India for 2021 by the Association of International Wealth Management of India (AIWMI) and the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF).

Siddarth is a qualified chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India, and holds a Bachelor’s in Commerce from St Joseph’s Commerce College, Bangalore.

Served as a member on several government committees and personally writing several representations that have positively influenced the industry.

Siddharth Bafna, Partner, Lodha & Co

Siddharth Bafna leads the Corporate Finance practice at Lodha & Co.  He is a rank holding CA and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA.  Siddharth has several years of Corporate Finance experience, having led a number of M&A and Private Equity advisory engagements.

He has led many transactions in the consumer and retail industries, e.g., majority stake sale in Moshe’s to New Silk Route (a USD 1.4 billion Asia focused Private Equity Fund), majority stake sale in BookmyShow.com to Network18 group, Rs. 50 crore private equity capital raise by Indian Master Franchisee of Papa John’s (the world’s third largest pizza chain) from TVS Capital, Mirah Group’s (owners of Rajdhani Thali) Rs. 40 crore investment in Impresario (owners of Mocha, Smoke House Deli) and its investment in the new restaurant venture promoted by Zorawar Kalra (co-founder of the ‘Punjab Grill’ restaurant chain), Costa’s India entry and franchise agreement with Devyani International, etc. He is currently the advisor on several on-going deals across multiple sectors (including for retail apparel, dairy, logistics, packaging, auto component, restaurant companies, etc.)

Siddharth Das, COO, Flipkart Payment Gateway Pvt. Ltd

Siddharth heads Flipkart’s payment product, PayZippy and oversees all strategic and operational functions.

Before joining Flipkart, he led the creation of High Mark, the country's first Credit Information Bureau, to enable formal lending to the country’s underprivileged (Microfinance and Rural) borrowers.

Prior to that he spent close to a decade in the San Francisco Bay Area, working initially with technology start-ups and eventually leading data analytics practices at Acxiom and FICO.

He holds degrees from IIT Roorkee, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He builds audiophile sound systems in his spare time.

Siddharth Dhondiyal, IC member, GrowX Ventures

Siddharth Dhondiyal, is an experienced healthcare investor. Currently he is an independent buy side advisor and an  IC member of growX Ventures. Till recently he was a Managing Director with Truenorth where over the last 11 years Siddharth has focused on tracking the evolution and growth of the Indian healthcare sector and has been actively involved in Truenorth's investments in the healthcare sector including Aster DM Healthcare, Manipal Hospitals,Trivitron Healthcare and Cloudnine Hospitals.

A Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur, Siddharth also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Kolkata and did his Masters in Business Administration from INSEAD, France.

Siddharth Dhondiyal, MD, India Value Fund Advisors

Siddharth Dhondiyal, a Director in the IVFA investment team joined IVFA in 2006 and is involved with investments in healthcare, consumer and technology sectors.   Based in Bengaluru, he contributed to improving IVFA’s internal processes and developing the “The IVFA Way” - the Firm's approach to building admired businesses.

Over the last 10 years Siddharth has focused on tracking the evolution and growth of the Indian healthcare sector and has been actively involved in IVFA’s investments in the healthcare sector including Aster DM Healthcare, Manipal Hospitals, Trivitron Healthcare and Cloudnine Hospitals.

A Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur, Siddharth also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM, Kolkata and did his Masters in Business Administration from INSEAD, France.   He had a six-year stint with Accenture in its strategy consulting practice, where he worked with companies in the pharmaceutical, consumer goods, industrial products and telecom industries.

Siddharth Iyer, Investment Banking, Equirus Capital

Siddharth Jhunjhunwala, Head -Fund of Funds, Waterfield Alternatives Fund