Our speakers
Apurva Patel, Director, IDFC Alternatives
Apurva has had a wide range of experiences in financial services, across principal investments, investment banking, leveraged finance and equity research - both in India and the United States. In addition, he has had operating experience as head of Marketing and Business Development at NuView, a U.S. based software developer. He joined IDFC Private Equity in 2009, prior to which he was a founding member and Head of the Mumbai office of Brevan Howard's India Fund.
Prior to that, Apurva was at ICICI Venture, where he completed a variety of transactions including growth equity, leveraged buyout and royalty financing. In the United States, Apurva worked at leading banks including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. Along the way he co-founded India Index Fund LLC, the first pooled-investment vehicle offering index fund investing in India for overseas investors.
Apurva received an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, is a member of the aInstitute of Chartered Accountants of India, and a Founding Board Member of the Association of Senior Living India (ASLI). His wife and he enjoy fusion and classical music, cooking, scuba diving and travelling.
Apurva Shetty, COO & Co Founder, SenseGiz Technologies Pvt Ltd
Mr. Apurva Shetty is the Co-founder & COO of SenseGiz Technologies. He graduated in Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics in 2010 and decided against the rule of herd mentality of settling with an IT industry job. He started his career as a design engineer along with the responsibility of handling the assembly line in Geared Hydropower Pvt Ltd. Apurva climbed the steps of progress and became the Plant In charge within a year.
In 2012, he met Abhishek Latthe his college mate & they came up with some ideas which would help the society. As a result SenseGiz was born in 2013. Throughout his career, Apurva has consistently attained new business growth beyond all expectations. Working against all odds he tripled the turnover of Geared Hydropower with adding OEM’s to their customer portal along with marking its global footprint.
Apurva then went on to become the COO of SenseGiz accepting the challenge of establishing it in a tier 2 city when IOT was new to the country itself. He built a motivated young and energetic team of SenseGiz along with making it possible to indigenously design develop and assemble the product.
Archana Bhaskar, CHRO, Dr. Reddy's
Archana Bhaskar is the Chief Human Resource Officer at Dr. Reddy’s and a member of the Management Council.
Archana joined Dr. Reddy’s in June 2017 and has over 25 years of people management experience across diverse industries, geographies and companies. Prior to joining Dr. Reddy’s, Archana was with Royal Dutch Shell, Singapore, where she headed Human Resources for the Global Commercial businesses. Earlier, she has worked with Unilever, where she held positions of European and global responsibility, as well as large Indian corporations with whom she consulted in professionalising HR policies and practices.
Archana is an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, where she majored in Psychology & Mathematics, and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, from where she completed her Master’s Degree in Business Administration.
Archana Hingorani, CEO & Executive Director, IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd.
Dr. Hingorani is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of IIML, and is responsible for managing IIML's funds. She has 22 years of experience in the financial services industry, including teaching finance and academic research, and 12 years of experience in private equity fund management. Over the course of this period, she has been instrumental in IL&FS's foray into the private equity business and has made investments in private equity transactions with an aggregate capitalization value in excess of $8.2 billion. Prior to joining IL&FS in 1994, Dr. Hingorani was with the University of Pittsburgh (United States), where she was involved in academic research and teaching subjects in corporate finance and financial markets. She has published a number of articles in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Business and Finance and the Journal of the Economics of Business.
Dr. Hingorani is a member of the India CEO Forum, which is affiliated with the IMA (International Market Assessment Group). Dr Hingorani is also a member of United Nations Environment Programme, Finance Initiative, CII National Committee on Infrastructure Finance and is on the Advisory Council of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
Dr. Hingorani received her Bachelors degree in Economics from Bombay University (India). She received a Masters in Business Administration and PhD. in Corporate Finance from the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh (United States).
Archana Hingorani, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, IL&FS Investment Managers
Archana Jahagirdar, Founder and Managing Partner, Rukam Capital
Archana Jahagirdar, CEO, Angelworks
Archana Jahagirdar, the Managing Director & CEO of MentorX Incubation and Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Post Graduate degree from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University. Archana is actively involved in managing deal screening process including financial analysis and due diligence. She oversees the analysis of consumer and retail deals that are relevant to seed and series A rounds.
She is also involved in deal structuring and negotiation; ensure effective execution of investments. Archana has proactively engaged in the post-deal monitoring process, close contact with portfolio companies and keep abreast of their development. She also participates in strategic planning sessions with portfolio companies and internal leadership to ensure maximum value creation. Archana also prepares management reports for internal and external stakeholders' review. She is also involved in overseeing investment analysis on investment target, including industry/market analysis, SWOT analysis, and return analysis. Part of her mandate is to decide on helping portfolio companies raise their next round, decide on doing follow-on rounds and exit decisions. Over the years, Archana has deep dived in the start-up ecosystem and screening deals across sectors. She is engaged in meeting entrepreneurs, financial analysis, legal and financial diligence, industry analysis. Archana has been a director of the company since its incorporation and was appointed as managing director with effect from August 25, 2017. Since its inception in 2017, Archana has looked at thousands of deals across sectors.
Prior to this, she was the CEO of Indian Angel Network Incubator and COO for Indian Angels Network from 2015 till 2017, where she was actively involved in deal vetting, creating investment mandates and successfully executed CSR programs for corporates such as Michelin India, Johnson Matthey, and Napino Auto & Electricals.
IAN typically receives almost 4,000 decks a month. As part of the top management, Archana was closely involved in evaluating the opportunities at the first stage, including initial interviews and conducting the entire documentation process related to incubation such as MOU, SSHA, share certificate. She also oversaw the investment due diligence process and help reach the investee company to reach the investment stage. She was also involved in coaching entrepreneurs for presentations to the network
In her personal capacity, Archana is also an active angel investor.
Archana Jahagirdar, Founder and Managing Partner, Rukam Capital
- National Recognition: Nominated to the National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC), chaired by Honorable Cabinet Minister Shri Piyush Goyal.
- Awards: Featured in Mint's "100 Women Entrepreneurs Building and Shaping India" list (2022) and named among the "41 Women Torchbearers of India’s Startup Investment Space" by Inc42 (2023).
Archana Jahagirdar is at the forefront of transforming the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem in India. As the Founder and Managing Partner of Rukam Capital, an early-stage consumer-focused VC fund, she stands out as one of the few women general partners in venture capital both in India and globally. Archana’s sharp intuition and deep understanding of the Indian markets define her illustrious journey.
Achievements
Early Career and Contributions:
Before founding Rukam Capital, Archana excelled in deal sourcing, setting up accelerators, and collaborating with the Indian Angel Network. Her early-stage investing expertise is demonstrated in brands like Burger Singh. Her transactional acumen is matched by her ability to scale portfolio companies and foster relationships with tier-1 funds.
Rukam Capital: Founded in 2019, Rukam Capital has invested in 18 companies across various sectors, including Sleepy Owl, GoDesi, BECO, Pilgrim, Curefoods, and Yoho. Archana believes in the economic impact of catalyzing entrepreneurial spirit, which inspired her to launch Rukam Capital.
Rukam Sitara: A tech fund launched to capture value in India's dynamic tech landscape.
Startup Ecosystem Events: Key organizer of New Delhi Slush’d, India’s licensed avatar of Slush Helsinki, and Startup Makakumbh. Co-led the Indian startup delegation at Latitude 59, Estonia.
Bootstrap Incubation and Advisory Foundation: Founded a non-profit organization aimed at creating a community for early-stage startup founders, investors, business enthusiasts, industry experts, and other stakeholders.
Education:
Archana holds bachelor's and master’s degrees in literature from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
Archana Priyadarshini, Venture Partner, Unicorn India Ventures
Archana is Venture Partner at Unicorn India Ventures. She heads Unicorn’s Bangalore operations and engages with portfolio entrepreneurs for performance monitoring, capital raising, and strategic decision making.
Archana has over 15 years of experience in the IT industry, where she has worked in leadership roles in various consulting companies and banks. She was very instrumental in defining equity based lending products for Wells Fargo.
After her corporate stint, Archana started Bootcamp Fitness Studio (Bangalore based chain of gyms) which ran successfully for a couple of years before taking an exit. Archana became an active angel investor afterward and had invested in various sectors.
She is a Chemical Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur.
Archana Sasan, Vice President-India Legal and Ethics, Dell Technologies
Ms. Archana Sasan joined Dell in October 2011 as the Lead Counsel for India Legal team. Prior to joining Dell, Ms. Sasan was senior vice president, legal and compliance, for Bharti Airtel where she had geographic responsibility for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and also oversaw legal, tax litigation and statutory compliance issues for its various business units. She previously worked with GE Money Financial Services Limited as vice president within its legal and compliance organization. Prior to moving in-house, she spent close to 15 years in private practice as a Partner in a leading Indian law firm where she was also the head of the employment law, real estate and telecom practices. Ms. Sasan brings significant experience advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, foreign investment in India and other large commercial transactions. Ms. Archana Sasan holds a LLB from the Campus Law Centre, a diploma in journalism from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan in New Delhi and a Bachelor’s degree in English with honors from Lady Shriram College.