Our speakers

Arif Khan, CDO, NPCI

Mr. Arif Khan leads the strategic planning for digital transformation at NPCI. His role is growing NPCI’s new products portfolio basis customer needs and industry trends. Mr. Khan is responsible for driving innovation, analytics and technology.

A post graduate in Business Management from XLRI – Jamshedpur, Mr. Khan was earlier associated with RazorPay (one of the fastest growing payment gateways) as the Chief Innovation Officer. Arif during his stint at HDFC of over 15 years was instrumental in driving strategic initiatives in payments, digital banking and financial inclusion. With an overall experience of over 18 years in the product management, business development and delivering innovative business and technology solutions, Arif has been instrumental in influencing diverse groups to deliver innovative business and new age disruptive solutions.

Arihant Patni, MD, Hive India

Arihant Patni is an entrepreneur, financial advisor and active angel investor with extensive experience in diverse areas such as IT services/infrastructure (including computer software), business development/marketing and wealth management.

Arihant began his career at his family business, Patni Computer Systems, one of the leading Indian IT businesses of the time, where he had a broad exposure to the business of the company, including positions in the computer software and human resources departments, as well as being a business development and marketing executive. Arihant’s foray in the venture capital space came about when Patni Computer Systems, was acquired in 2011 at a valuation of $1.5 billion which included a full exit for promoters and private equity investors. Currently, Arihant is Managing Director of Patni Financial Advisors, a wealth management company that advises high net worth families and the Hive, an incubator that invests in early stage companies in the field data analytics and data science (‘Big Data’). He is also Co-Founder and on the Board of Directors of Nirvana Venture Advisors, a venture capital fund with focus on the internet space.

Arihant received his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Chemical Engineering. He continued his education at Babson College, where he received his Masters of Business Administration (Magna Cum Laude), with a dual concentration in entrepreneurship and finance. He then received a separate Masters Degree in Statistics from Columbia University, with a concentration in quantitative finance.

Arihant Patni, MD, Patni Financial Advisors

Arjun Anand, Executive Director, Verlinvest

Arjun Anand is an Executive Director with Verlinvest, the ~$2bn family office diversification vehicle of the Belgian founding families behind Anheuser Busch Inbev, the world’s leading beer group. He joined Verlinvest in 2015 for active Asia expansion and then setup an India office in 2019 to manage its active Indian portfolio.

He focuses on the food & beverage and digital consumer sectors, which are core to Verlinvest.

Arjun currently serves on multiple board including Sula Vineyards (India’s market leader in wine), Veeba Foods (India’s leading condiments brand), Drums Food (India’s first Greek yogurt brand), Purplle (Beauty E-commerce vertical), Wakefit (Digital-first home solutions brand), A-Star-Education (a Singapore based education company). He is also a board observer for Verlinvest in BYJU’S (the world’s most valued ed-tech company).

Based on his investing experience, Arjun researches the food & beverage, education and digital consumer sectors. He led the setting up of the Mumbai office at Verlinvest. He also researches trends in food consumption and consumer preferences globally, which also helps drive Verlinvest’ s F&B investments in Asia.

Prior to joining Verlinvest in Singapore, Arjun lived and worked across Australia, Malaysia and India, working with leading FMCG and Telecom organizations as a consultant. Based out of Sydney Australia, as an engagement manager at Kearney, he drove growth and go-to-market strategies in top food & beverage brands in the country. He also spent over a year in the leading Australian telecom provider, where he was focused on improving supply chain operations.

Arjun Bawa, VP, PineBridge

Arjun Bawa is a Vice President of PineBridge Investments and joined the firm in 2006 at its headquarters in New York. Mr. Bawa has been actively involved in investing in Asia for many years and relocated to the firm’s office in Singapore in 2012. He is responsible for sourcing and performing due diligence on Asian private equity fund managers, making investment recommendations, monitoring of private equity fund investments, product development and marketing. He is also actively involved in all fund investment decisions on a global basis. Mr. Bawa also manages Private Equity Portfolio VI, a sixth generation global fund of funds program, which is currently being raised with a target of $500 million. Prior to joining PineBridge Investments, he worked at Allianz in Munich and New York as well as with Deutsche Bank in Singapore and across South-East Asia.

Arjun Lall, Partner, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co.

Arjun is a partner in Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. and has been with the firm since 2001. He heads the firm's Technology Law practice and advises his clients which range from start ups to leading listed technology companies through various stages in their life cycle.

He advises technology companies ranging from startups to leading listed companies including Google and Amazon on their core information technology operations. This includes structuring and negotiating outsourcing transactions, technology transfer and licensing transactions, software and hardware development contracts and advising on the Indian regulatory framework surrounding internet service provider liability, GPS mapping and navigation, transcoding, VoIP and other technologies to clients. The Firm's Technology Law practice is been ranked as a Tier 1 practice in India by Chambers and Partners, UK in 2009.

He also advises technology companies through their core corporate life cycle ranging from structuring entry strategies and early stage operations to early, middle and late stage funding. As a co-head of the Firm's Securities Law group, he advises technology companies on domestic and international exit and fund raising transactions by way of capital markets issuances including IPOs, ADR, GDR, FCCB and QIP issuances for clients including Infosys Technologies, OnMobile Global, MindTree Consulting and Opto Circuits. The Firm's capital markets practice was also rated as a Tier I practice in India by Chambers and Partners, UK in 2009.

Arjun Mohan, CEO, upGrad

Arjun is the CEO - India, at the Asia’s higher EdTech major - upGrad, which within 7 years of its inception, has impacted over 2 million total registered learners over 100 countries.

Arjun started his career with the Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, commonly known as Byju’s, as a teacher and moved up the ranks into a leadership role. He ran most of the Sales and Marketing in the company’s early years and was until recently running its International Business. He held several leadership positions throughout his tenure including Vice President - Marketing and most recently, Chief Business Officer (CBO).

Prior to Byju’s, Arjun drove Sales and Operations at Titan Industries and did his stints with Tata Motors, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd. (TRIL) and Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts. He started his career as a Tata Administrative Services Manager after passing out from IIM Kozhikode with Gold Medal.

Arjun Nair, Co-founder & Director, Great Learning

Arjun Nair is a co-founder at Great Learning. Having launched and scaled new programs online and at centers across India, he is an ardent believer in the power of technology to consistently deliver high quality learning experiences and transform the lives.

Arjun has been part of the leadership at a number of VC funded startups in the US and India. Prior to Great Learning, he headed Strategic Initiatives at ZipDial, which was acquired by Twitter. Arjun completed his MBA from MIT Sloan where he received the prestigious Legatum Fellowship awarded to entrepreneurs from emerging markets. He received an MS from Duke University and has worked on building products and scaling operations at Siemens for a number of  years before his entrepreneurial journey. 

Arjun Pillai, Co-founder and CEO, Profoundis | @Profoundis

Arjun completed his undergraduate degree in Engineering in 2010 from Cochin University of Science and Technology. On graduation, he joined Infosys and worked as an SAP Consultant for 2 years. Pursuing his dream, along with 3 of his batchmates, he started a Data Analytics startup, Profoundis, in 2012 as the co-founder and CEO.  

Profoundis created Vibe, which is a B2B Data Intelligence Solution for Sales and Marketing. As the CEO, Arjun has raised more than 750,000 USD in 2 rounds from investors in US and India. He is also a graduate of Microsoft ventures, Startup Chile and Blackbox Silicon Valley Connect programs. Vibe has more than 100,000 users and 400 companies from 180 countries. The team has grown from 4 to 63 in less than 4 years.

Arjun is an active IEEE volunteer for the past 10 years. He has been serving on the boards of some of global engineering causes, having received international awards and recognitions for his contributions to the network.   Arjun is an avid traveler, having travelled over 15 countries in 5 continents and lived in 13 cities including some of the best startup eco systems. He is also a regular speaker, blogger, music and games lover.

@rarjunpillai

Armaan Gandhi, Co-Founder, Xyra