Our speakers
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.
Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO, Clear
Archit is the Founder and CEO of Clear, India’s leading fintech startup. Clear serves millions of Indians and businesses in the areas of taxes, invoicing, and wealth management. Archit earned his B. Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, and a Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Archna Shukla, Editor in Chief, News Corp VCCircle
Archna Shukla is a journalist with close to two decades of experience with leading publications such as The Indian Express, Mint, The Economic Times and Business Today. At VCCircle, she leads the editorial teams across vccircle.com, techcircle.in
Ariane Di Iorio, Regional Industry Manager South Asia, Financial Institutions Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group
Ms. Ariane Di Iorio joined IFC in 2011 and was FIG’s Hub leader in Brazil before moving to India, where she led the business development, portfolio management and structuring of investments in debt, equity, trade finance and providing advisory services in the financial sector in Brazil. Prior to IFC, Ms. Iorio was the CEO of the Rio de Janeiro Municipality Pension Fund and Deputy Secretary of Finance of Rio, where she led the debt restructuring of the municipality and improved the governance, efficiency and investment policies of its pension fund. In the financial sector, she has more than 12 years of experience being the head for Arab Banking Corporation in Brazil for international proprietary trading and treasury. Ms. Iorio also led the team for one of Banco Itau’s first international trading desks in New York. She was also a member of the diversity committee at the Brazilian Governance Institute, Member of the BMFBovespa Sustainability Index Board and currently a board member at Recovery, Latin America's largest debt collector. Ms. Ariane Di Iorio holds a Masters degree in Economics from London School of Economics and a BSc in Economics from the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro.
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.