Our speakers

Deepit Purkayastha, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Inshorts

Deepit Purkayastha is Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Inshorts, erstwhile, News in Shorts. In his capacity as Chief Strategy Officer, he is responsible to oversee the business and strategic roadmap for the enterprise. In his 4th year of IIT Kharagpur, Deepit teamed up with Azhar Iqubal and Anunay Pandey to build Inshorts the pioneer of short form content in India. 

In his leisure time, Deepit is fond of playing musical instruments. 

Deepthi Reddy, Head, IFMR Ventures

Ms. Deepthi Reddy is the Head, IFMR Ventures, Asset Management Company managing its first equity fund, the Network Enterprises Fund (NEF). NEF intends making investments in the missing links identified in the Indian rural/remote supply chains. The sponsor, IFMR Trust is a private trust with a mission to ensure that every individual and every enterprise has complete access to financial services. IFMR Trust is one of the enterprises mentored by ICICI Foundation.

She is responsible for Incubation, Fund structuring and investments into early stage, India focused private equity investments in the rural supply chain of the NEF focus sectors. Ms. Reddy has versatile operational exposure to investments and legal areas of the venture capital investment. She has been involved in screening the proposals, due diligence, investments, structuring the deal and monitoring activities of the Investee Undertakings. In addition, she has worked on legal functions of the venture capital process such as investor reports, contribution agreements, term sheets and share subscription agreements for Investee undertakings. She was instrumental in building relationships with research institutes that helped to accomplish synergistic partnerships as well as manpower for portfolio companies.

Ms. Reddy's academic background combines technology, legal and managerial subjects that have been critical in decision making and investments in VC/PE industry. She holds dual Bachelors degree in Science and Law from Osmania University, India. She is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in 'Intellectual property' from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University, India. She underwent a professional development programs on venture capital industry conducted by the UTI Institute of Capital Markets, IVCJ and IIM, Bangalore, India.

Deobrat Singh, Co-founder & CEO, Gazemetrix

Deobrat is the CEO and Co-founder of Gazemetrix which is disrupting the way brands interact with user generated photos in social media. Over the past several years he’s worked with startups and big corporations alike building scalable systems along the way.

Dev Khare, Principal, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Dev joined Lightspeed Advisory Services India in 2011 and invests primarily in the Internet and mobile sectors, including areas such as business software & services, commerce, financial services, location, marketing and social media.

Previously, Dev was at Venrock, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture firm, where he served on the boards of Aha Mobile (acquired by Harman), Appia, Lavante, Slideshare (acquired by LinkedIn) and Turnhere. He also was board observer and supported investments in Aria Systems, Asoka, BillFloat, CoreTrace, FutureDial, INRIX and Redbeacon (acquired by Home Depot).

Prior to Venrock, Dev led market development at Symbol Technologies’ Mobile Software Division (now part of Motorola). In 2003, Symbol acquired Covigo, a Silicon Valley-based mobile application software company that Dev co-founded in 1999. Prior to Covigo, Dev worked in product management at CrossWorlds Software and Aditi Technologies as well as in corporate finance and private equity at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Jefferies & Company.

Dev has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BS in Economics from Wharton and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently sits on the advisory board of the Wireless Communications Alliance.

Dev Lall, MD, Bakers Circle (India) Pvt Ltd

Dev Lall is Managing Director & CEO of Bakers Circle (India) Pvt Ltd. The company specializes in reverse manufacturing and R&D that enables clients to reduce costs using the frozen route.

It currently serves 1200 outlets across the country with expansion plans in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to founding Bakers Circle, Dev was with Hyatt International, New Delhi where he was in charge of pre-opening operations of Hyatt properties and was also overseeing operations of 8 points of sales at their different properties, service procedures, training and development of man power.Dev completed his Bsc. Institutional management & MBA in International Business from Johnson & Wales University, USA

Dev Lall, CEO & MD, Bakers Circle (India) Pvt Ltd

Dev Lall is Managing Director & CEO of Bakers Circle (India) Pvt Ltd. The company specializes in reverse manufacturing and R&D that enables clients to reduce costs using the frozen route.

It currently serves 1200 outlets across the country with expansion plans in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to founding Bakers Circle, Dev was with Hyatt International, New Delhi where he was in charge of pre-opening operations of Hyatt properties and was also overseeing operations of 8 points of sales at their different properties, service procedures, training and development of man power.Dev completed his Bsc. Institutional management & MBA in International Business from Johnson & Wales University, USA

Deval Sanghavi, Partner & Co-Founder, Dasra

Deval has provided philanthropists with intelligent investment strategies directing over USD 40 million into the Indian social sector over the past 14 years. He incubated the Indian Philanthropy Forum mobilizing over 500 members who are driving the philanthropy agenda in India. He also initiated India’s largest collaborative giving platform, Dasra Giving Circles, which combines in-depth research, funding and managerial support enabling 15 – 30x scale.

He has written articles for esteemed publications such as Business India and Alliance Magazine and has been quoted in media channels like Times of India, The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, Mint, Bloomberg TV and NDTV.

Before founding Dasra, he was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. His background as an investment banker has equipped him to develop a unique philanthropic investment model that brings rigor and discipline to the sector. His experience in the social sector enabled him to play a vital role in the inception of the Times of India Social-Impact Awards 2011. He is engaged with both philanthropists and social entrepreneurs and has spoken about this unique investment model at leading events such as the Global Philanthropy Forum, Unconvention, Maidan Summit, SOCAP, CSR-CSO Bridge, ICICI Fellows Programme and Mint Conclave. He has been instrumental in building partnerships with top leaders from the sector such as Omidyar Network (ON), Vodafone Foundation and ICICI Foundation to name a few. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, completing his Bachelor of Business Administration with a dual Honors degree in Business and Finance and a minor in Asian Studies.

Devashish Khanna, CIO- Private Market Investments, Capri Global Family office

Devashish has been in the Family Office Investing space for the last 18 years and has led 4 Family Offices in India. He has spent time across asset classes with passion to invest in Private Markets. Current portfolio has more than 15 LP positions and 40 direct investments.

Devdutt Marathe, Vice President, Apax Partners

Devdutt Marathe is a vice president based in the Mumbai office. He joined Apax in 2009 and has focused on transactions in the Consumer, Tech & Telco and Services sectors, including AssuredPartners, Chola, Shriram City Union Finance and Zensar Technologies.

Prior to joining Apax, Devdutt was a Senior Software Engineer at OnMobile Global, India's largest mobile VAS Company, where he helped build their Mobile Advertising product. Devdutt holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras and Caltech.

Devdutt Marathe, Principal, Apax Partners