Our speakers

Shweta Bhatia, Partner, Eight Roads Ventures

Shweta leads the technology, consumer and financial services Ventures team in India. She has over 15 years of experience in venture and growth equity investing. Prior to joining Eight Roads, Shweta was Head of Asia Investments for the Venture Capital & Growth Equity team at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Shweta began her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs based in New York and worked in growth equity investing role at Warburg Pincus in Mumbai before re-joining Goldman Sachs in 2010. Shweta has held board roles with companies that include Whatfix, Chaipoint, Shadowfax, Fabhotels, Indostar, Boss Zhipin (China) and Momo (Vietnam). Shweta received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Smith College.

Eight Roads is the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited. Eight Roads Ventures invests in high-quality, high-growth companies in Asia, Europe and the US, with a focus on healthcare, technology and consumer products. Eight Roads Ventures is committed to making the companies it invests in leaders in their industries through access to patient capital, a powerful network of resources and a team of investment professionals with a proven track record of success. Eight Roads Ventures’ investments in India and Southeast Asia include Icertis, Manthan, Pharmeasy, Chaipoint, Toppr, Shadowfax, Northern Arc, Akulaku, Early Salary, Laurus Labs and Cipla Health.

Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Head of Public Policy-India & South Asia, Uber

Ms. Shweta Rajpal Kohli, an award-winning business journalist and TV news anchor, is Uber's first Head of Public Policy for India and South Asia. She is responsible for Uber's relations with policy makers, regulators, government officials, think tanks, NGOs, industry bodies and research organisations. She is part of the executive management team led by President Amit Jain. She is a recipient of several awards including Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism by President Pratibha Patil in June 2010 and Seema Nazareth-Business Standard award for young journalists.  Ms. Kohli has close to two decades of experience in the media industry as a leading TV news anchor and award winning journalist. She has spent over 11 years at NDTV as Business Editor leading all its economic and corporate coverage. Ms. Shweta Rajpal Kohli is a  British Chevening Scholar and was invited as International Visitor Leadership Program Fellow by US Government under its Fulbright program.

Shweta Sahu, Leader, International Dispute Resolution and Investigations practice, Nishith Desai Associates

At NDA, Shweta is actively involved in several high-stake litigations across jurisdictions at domestic and international levels. She regularly appears before the High Court of Delhi, the Supreme Court of India. She is extensively involved in key commercial litigations with special focus on technology litigation.

She has also been involved in a wide range of domestic and foreignseated arbitrations – governed by rules of leading arbitral institutions. Enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards (domestic as well as foreign) comprises a significant component of her practice area. She takes keen interest in white collar investigations and employment-related litigations as well.

She regularly advises clients and works on disputes across various sectors like automobile, aviation, banking services, education, healthcare, insurance, investment funds, media and entertainment, oil and gas, real estate, software and telecommunication.

Shweta has several articles and papers published to her credit, with a special focus on arbitration - in International Arbitration Law Review, Kluwer Arbitration blog etc. She is also listed as a ‘Contributing Author’ by LexisNexis PSL Arbitration. She has also coauthored a chapter in the book, Repositioning India for Arbitration: Envisioning an Empowered Nation’, published by OakBridge Publishing in 2018, and ‘Specialised Arbitration: Emerging International Trends and Practices’ published by Thomson Reuters, Legal in 2021. She’s currently co-authoring a book which is proposed to be published by Thomson Reuters. She was also instrumental in drafting the Guidance Note signed with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) on execution of judgments from UAE in India, which was signed by the Chief Justice of DIFC Courts and NDA in September 2018.

She has also authored several key publications of NDA including research papers on Law of Damages in India, Interim Reliefs in Arbitral Proceedings: Powerplay between Courts and Tribunals, Enforcement of Arbitral Awards and Decrees in India, The Contours of Conducting Internal Investigations in India, Privilege and Waiver – Attorney-client privilege and Without prejudice privilege.

Currently, she is a member of the Young IAMC Steering Committee.

Shweta Singh, Vice President, Lumis Partners

Shweta is a Vice President at Lumis Partners where she is responsible for building the human capital and education technology portfolio. She has a firm grounding of corporate finance as well as hands-on operations, entrepreneurial and early stage investing experience.

Prior to joining Lumis, Shweta ran an early stage investment firm - Sol Primero where she invested in high growth internet businesses across various sectors. She has worked with some leading emerging Indian internet companies such as Zomato and Flipkart in an operational capacity. She began her career as an Investment Banker with UBS in London where she structured and executed several equity raisings as well as acquisitions on behalf of her clients.

Shweta holds an MBA in Operations & Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a Masters in Economics from University of Cambridge and an Undergraduate degree in Mathematics from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi.

Shweta Srivastava, Head IT Application, JK Cement

Shyam Powar, Business Head, Corporate Finance, Allegro Corporate Finance Advisors

Shyam Powar is Business Head, Corporate Finance, Allegro Corporate Finance Advisors Private Limited
• 21 years + experience in multinational organizations including as Director (Corporate Finance)Andersen and Larsen & Toubro
• Expertise in M&A, Debt Restructuring and Take-outs, Private Equity and IPO advisory
• MBA from Tulane University (US) and Chemical Engineer – IT BHU.

 

Shyam Sundar, Partner, IDFC Alternatives

Mr. S.G. Shyam Sundar has over 14 years of experience in the Indian infrastructure sector. He began his career as an investment banker with ICICI Securities (ICICI’s investment banking JV with JP Morgan). Subsequently, he moved to the Infrastructure group of ICICI Bank and after that to Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), to undertake project finance activities in the telecom sector.

 

Mr. Sundar joined IDFC Private Equity in its formative days and has made over 11 investments in a range of infrastructure sectors – power, telecom, oil & gas, roads, ports, airports, shipping and logistics. In the last 5 years, he led 3 successful IPOs of his portfolio companies – GMR, GSPL and Ashoka Buildcon.

 

He was a member of CII National Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Committee of Bombay Chamber of Commerce. Currently, he is a member of CII National Committee on Shipping. Mr. Sundar received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, and a BE (Mechanical) from Anna University, Chennai.

Shyatto Raha, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, MyHealthcare

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.