Our speakers

Badri Sanjeevi , CEO, Group CFO, People Group, Mauj Mobile

Badri Sanjeevi is the CEO at Mauj Mobile and CFO of People Group. People Group includes businesses such as Shaadi.com, Makaan.com and Mauj Mobile founded by Anupam Mittal. People Group has leading investors Westbridge Capital, Saama Capital, Sequoia Capital and Intel Capital. Shaadi.com is the worlds largest matrimonial service provider with over 30 million members and 3.2 million success stories. Mauj Mobile is India’s fastest growing mobile media company. Makaan.com is a leading real estate portal in India.

With experience of over 20 years, Badri leads the Mauj Mobile and Mobango teams on their growth path working closely with telecom operators, media companies and mobile app developers. Mauj Mobile is one of the world’s fastest growing Mobile Internet companies delivering downloads of apps, games and videos to users all over the world. Mauj Mobile boasts over 20 million unique visitors per month and over 1 million downloads a day.

Badri is a Chartered Accountant, having cleared all exams in All India rank-holders list and a Cost Accountant (equivalent of CIMA – UK). He has also completed his MBA from INSEAD Business School, France in 2001. He started his career with Arthur Andersen in India and went on to work with leading organizations like Deutsche Bank Telecoms Investment Banking in London, T-Mobile with their Strategy team and Deloitte Media Strategy consulting in London.

Badri has been voted amongst the Top 100 CFOs in India by a peer group of CFOs for 3 years - 2012, 2013and 2015 for strategic contribution to business. Under Badri’s leadership, Mauj has won Red Herring European Innovation Award for 2012 for innovative products; mBillionth award for innovative products for developing countries.

Bahroze Kamdin, Partner, Deloitte India

Bahubali Vasant Shete, MD, Connovate Technology Pvt Ltd

Bala Deshpande, Senior MD, NEA

Bala joined New Enterprise Associates India Pvt. Ltd. (NEA India) in 2008 as Senior Managing Director based out of its Mumbai office. Since that time NEA India’s assets under management have grown from ~$100mn to over ~$350mn. Under Bala’s leadership NEA has invested in several companies like Air Works, FSS, InTarvo, Intellisys, Naaptol, Nova, Trishe and Vishwa. Her private equity experience has seen the full cycle from nurturing young companies to executing multiple exits including IPO’s, buy-backs, strategic sales, and capital market divestments. She is also an Independent Director Board Member of Future Retail and Info Edge who are listed on National Stock Exchange and Leaders in their sectors.

Prior to joining NEA, Bala was with ICICI Venture (a leading Indian venture capital private equity investor), where she used her operational experience to identify opportunities for investment and played a strategic role in shaping the future of the investee companies. Whilst at ICICI Venture, she was a Director on the boards of several companies including Aaj Tak, Shoppers Stop, Nagarjuna Construction, Air Deccan, TechProcess Solutions etc. Prior to ICICI Venture, Bala worked across functions like sales, distribution and brand management with leading multinational companies such as Bestfoods, Cadburys, and ICI.

Bala is passionate about social development and inclusion. To this end, she is on the Advisor Board of few transformational enterprises like TRRAIN and iVolunteer.

Bala G. Dharan, Managing Director, Berkeley Research Group

Dr. Bala Dharan, Ph.D., CPA, is Robert B. and Candice J. Haas Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and Visiting Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also a Managing Director at Berkeley Research Group, an international business and litigation consulting firm. Dr. Dharan has provided consulting and expert testimony on corporate finance, accounting and auditing, business valuation, and corporate governance issues. He has been invited three times to the United States Congress to testify on financial reporting issues, and has been a frequent invited speaker at various corporations and industry conferences. He has provided valuation and strategic consulting for several start-up businesses, and helped co-found a software technology business serving the banking industry.

Dr. Dharan is an award-winning teacher and has designed and taught dozens of corporate executive education offerings at Wharton School, Rice University, Indian School of Business, and other institutions. He has been a professor or visiting professor at leading global business schools, including MIT Sloan School of Management, University of California at Berkeley, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Indian School of Business, and Jones School of Management at Rice University. His research centers on the strategic use of financial information by managers and investors. He is a co- author of four textbooks.

Dr. Dharan is a Certified Public Accountant (USA) with ABV (Accredited in Business Valuation) and CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics) credentials. He has a B-Tech degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, PGDM (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in accounting from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

Bala Kishore, VP Better Living, Searce

Bala Kishore, VP Better Living, Searce

Bala Naidu, Managing Partner, Argha Capital LLP

Bala Naidu is the Managing Partner of Argha Capital LLP. He was earlier a partner at Baring Private Equity Asia and prior to that a Managing Director at the Asian Special Situations Group at Goldman Sachs, Singapore. He has c. 20 yrs of experience in Asia and has succesfully invested across asset classes including buyouts, growth equity, distressed debt, hybrid financing, debt, public equities and hedging strategies.

Bala Parthasarathy, Managing Partner, Angel Prime

It's one thing to be an entrepreneur. It's another thing to pull it off multiple times. Bala has been there and done that.

Among other things, Bala has built three companies, the latest of which was Snapfish, bought by Hewlett Packard in 2005. As General Manager and MD for Snapfish International, he led its growth into becoming the world's largest online photo site with 100M+ users, and expansion into 20+ countries in Europe and Asia Pacific. Prior to Snapfish, Bala co-founded Wyatt River Software, which was acquired by what is now SafeNet and started his career as one of the early engineers who built Digital Link, which went public in 1993. Later, he worked with Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman - UIDAI, and played a seminal and leading role in defining the application strategy and developer ecosystem on the UIDAI project.

In 2006, he was recognized by University of California - Santa Cruz with its highest honor for alumni as a "Distinguished Alumnus". He obtained his bachelor's degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

His insatiable appetite to see the world has taken him on personal adventures across 75 countries in the world and driven him to acquire fluent spoken Spanish and French and a surprisingly effective grasp of German, Portuguese and Italian. He has climbed the Kilimanjaro, trekked the Andes, Alps and the Himalayas, motor-biked across the African continent, up the highest motorable road in the world at Leh, ridden boats, camels and ramshackle trains - in the quest for experiencing those indescribable moments which have made him what he is. He shares his love for the world and adventure with his wife, Dana and their three kids.

Bala Parthasarthy, Co-founder & CEO, MoneyTap

Bala has donned all kinds of hats from being a serial entrepreneur to a venture capitalist – he has done it all! With his endless reservoir of energy and passion to ideate, strategize and execute, Bala has over 16 years of experience in the world of start- ups. He is currentky the cofounder of MoneyTap, India's first consumer credit line.

Bala was one of the co-founders of Angelprime (now Prime Venture Partners), a seed – stage fund based in Bangalore. From 2011 - 2016 he was deeply involved in companies such as ZipDial (acquired by Twitter), Ezetap, SmartOwner, Vidgyor, Happay, HackerEarth, Synup, Healthify.me, Quizziz and more.

Bala has built three companies, one of them being Snapfish, bought by Hewlett Packard in 2005. As General Manager and MD for Snapfish International, he led its growth into becoming the world's largest online photo site with 100M+ users, and expansion into 20+ countries in Europe and Asia Pacific. \

In his early days, he was a co-founder of iSelect and then Wyatt River Software that was acquired by SafeNet and started his career as one of the early engineers who built Digital Link, which went public in 1993. He has also worked with Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, UIDAI, and played a key role in defining the application strategy and developer ecosystem on Aadhaar from 2010- 2011.

His insatiable appetite to see the world has taken him on personal adventures across 80 countries in the world and driven him to acquire fluent spoken Spanish and French and a surprisingly effective grasp of German, Portuguese and Italian. He has climbed the Kilimanjaro, trekked the Andes, Alps and the Himalayas, motor-biked across the African continent, up the highest motor able road in the world at Leh, ridden boats, camels and ramshackle trains - in the quest for experiencing those indescribable moments which have made him what he is. He shares his love for the world and adventure with his wife, Dana and their three kids.

In 2006, he was recognized by University of California, Santa Cruz with its highest honor for alumni as a "Distinguished Alumnus". He obtained his bachelor's degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.