Our speakers

Varghese Thomas, Partner, JSA Advocates & Solicitors

Varoon Chandra, Partner, AZB & Partners

Varoon Chandra, Partner at AZB & Partners, earned his Bachelor of Law from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University of Law, Hyderabad, in 2004. He is a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. He has been a partner of the Firm since 2011.

The focal areas of his practice include Capital Markets, Securities Laws, Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity. He has been involved in a number of international and domestic capital market transactions, including issuances of FCCBs, ADRs and and GDRs as well as Indian initial public offers, rights issues and qualified institutions placements. He has also advised on a number of FCCB restructuring transactions undertaken by Indian issuers, including consent solicitations and exchange offers. He has advised on securities regulations issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India pertaining to matters such as takeover regulations, the investment/acquisition of shares in Indian listed companies, insider trading in the context of investment/ acquisition of shares in Indian listed companies and the listing of companies on an Indian stock exchange. He has also advised on the structuring of joint venture companies and private equity investments and has assisted in drafting and negotiating documentation for such transactions.

Varsha Jhawar, Head - M&A and Investment Banking, Alantra India

Varsha Jhawar heads the India of Office of Alantra - a leading global investment bank, focusing on the mid-market, with offices across Europe, the US, Latin America and Asia. Alantra has more than 500 professionals across the globe providing independent advice on Mergers & Acquisitions, Debt Advisory, Financial Restructuring, Credit Portfolio and Capital Markets Transactions.

Varsha has over 13 years of experience across services in investment banking - M&A, private equity fund raising, debt capital raising, valuations and due diligence. She has been with Alantra since 2012 (as part of C.W.Downer & Co) and prior to that was working with BDO Consulting. She has worked on transactions across industries like Packaging, BPO, IT Services, Industrials, Logistics, Food and food Ingredients, Automotive and Aerospace Components, Consumer Products and Services, etc. She is a Chartered Accountant by profession.

Varsha Tagare, Director, Qualcomm Ventures

Varsha Tagare is a Director at Qualcomm Ventures India based in Mumbai. She has extensive operating and venture capital experience in Silicon Valley and India.

Varsha manages investments in AppsDaily, Apalya, Birds Eye Systems and Reverie Technologies for Qualcomm Ventures. Qualcomm ventures is a stage agnostic investor focused on mobile and internet sector.

Prior to her current role Varsha was at Intel Capital investing in US and Indian companies. Some of her investments include companies such as JAMDAT (IPO on NASDAQ), Mobile365 (acquired by Sybase), MontaVista, Pollex (acquired by Mediatek), PacketVideo (acquired by NTT), Canesta, MCX (IPO on BSE), enStage and Allied Digital.

Varsha has a MS (Electrical Engineering) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BE (Electrical Engineering) from VJTI, University of Bombay.

Varun Alagh, Founder & CEO, MamaEarth

The idea of a 100% toxin-free baby products brand MamaEarth came to Varun and his partner & Co-Founder Ghazal when they became parents and had a difficult time finding chemical-free products for their son.

Varun Alagh comes with over 10+ years of leadership experience in sales and marketing roles with world-renowned FMCG brands. Varun started his career with Hindustan Unilever and has, twice been listed amongst the top managers in HUL. He then went on to become the Senior Brand Manager at Diageo. As a part of this assignment, Varun managed the ATL, BTL, Digital & Trade activations for Smirnoff across India. Varun has also completed a four-year stint with Coca-Cola as the Senior Brand Manager and has been instrumental in launching Coke Zero in India. During his corporate stint, he has won multiple recognitions including Business Unit Presidents Award, Above and Beyond Award and I am Diageo Award. Varun leverages his understanding of the FMCG market to develop, distribute and market MamaEarth's 100% toxin-free products.

He holds a Masters in Finance and Marketing from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and Bachelors in Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE).

Varun Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO, EDUVANZ FINANCING PRIVATE LIMITED

Varun Dua, CEO & Co founder, Coverfox Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd. | @Coverfox

Varun Dua is the CEO and Co-Founder of Coverfox Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd. that runs the website www.coverfox.com.He has extensive and diverse experience in the insurance industry spanning over 10 years. He’s worked on Sales; ROI based marketing, built tech solutions for insurance companies amongst other things.

Varun started his career as an advertising and marketing professional and worked with leading insurance and financial services firms including Tata AIG and Franklin Templeton. He led marketing analytics efforts for direct business acquisition and led technology efforts for efficient servicing of customers.

Prior to Coverfox, he has co-founded 2 firms Enser Communications and Glitterbug Technologies which have brought in good technology and practices to the Insurance Industry in India. Enser was set up in 2008 and was the fastest growing customer support and contact center for financial services firms and grew to 500 people in two years of its inception. Glitterbug is a technology services firm and has serviced top insurance brands including ICICI Prudential, HDFC Life and Aviva to integrate their online business with core applications and cloud based voice record storage, management and retrieval.

Varun is passionate about technology, consumer internet and financial services. He is a graduate of MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad) where he pursued the flagship course in communication management with a specialisation in Brand Management.

@duavarun

Varun Malhotra, Principal, Quona Capital

Varun Malhotra has a decade of venture investing experience across technology, financial services and impact, and is currently Principal at Quona Capital. Quona Capital is a venture firm focused on fintech for inclusion, investing across emerging markets. Varun focuses on Quona’s investment activities and portfolio in South & SE Asia. He was recently.

Varun Singh, Founder & CTO, ScaleArc

As Chief Technology Officer, Varun leads ScaleArc's Product Development and Technology Strategy. Varun also served as ScaleArc's CEO from March 2009 to Sept 2013. Varun is a technologist with broad experience in several fields, from running Linux-based BBS systems in the pre-internet-boom days, to writing about technology and open source software at PC Quest, CHIP, Digit and Network Computing, to creating India's top online technology brands such as TechTree and Tech2, to hosting technology shows on CNBC, TV18, CNN-IBN and ET Now. He led large Web & Application development teams as CTO at Network 18's web division and built the highly scalable technology behind large websites like IN.com, MoneyControl.com and various other portals.

Varun Sood, CIO & Head - Strategic Initiatives, Fortis Healthcare Limited

Varun Sood is CIO and Head - Strategic Initiatives at Fortis Healthcare, India’s fastest growing healthcare delivery company. He is currently spearheading efforts at integrating and transforming the company using Information technology as a key business driver and a source of competitive advantage for the company.

Prior to joining Fortis, Varun worked with Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and the Compunnel Software Group where, among other engagements, he worked with Price Waterhouse Coopers and telecom major, Verizon.

After garnering valuable experience in various operational roles in information technology, including business solutions and business process reengineering & optimization, Varun worked in senior positions comprehensively addressing all aspects of business. During this period he drove the integration of multiple business acquisitions from synergy evaluation to realization, conceptualized and implemented large organization development initiatives and led strategy development efforts to address critical business transformation needs.

Varun has substantial experience across multiple industries, functions, geographies and cultures, and has lived and worked in India, USA and South Africa.

Varun is the Co-Chair at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) CIO Forum for 2014-2015.