Alok leads investing practice around SaaS and Social at SAIF Partners. Prior to this, Alok was CEO of Freecharge (acquired by Snapdeal) and COO of RedBus (acquired by Goibibo). Prior to his startup stints, Alok spent 5 years at Google in Bangalore and Mountain View in various product roles. Alok holds an MBA from India School of Business and a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. He has 3 patents and was listed in the Fortune India 40 under 40 lists for 2014.
Venkatesh Peddi
Executive Director, Chiratae
Mr. Venkatesh Peddi is Executive Director at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has over 17 years of industry experience, including 11 years of venture experience.
Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Venkatesh was Deputy Vice President at Reliance Venture Asset Management – the corporate venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group. He was involved in executing multiple end-to-end investments and was a board member at Gradatim IT Ventures and a board observer at Suvidhaa Infoserve and Pelago Inc. Venkatesh was earlier an Account Manager in Investment Banking division of Adventity, a leading KPO player, where he advised deal teams of leading investment banks at various deal stages. He later moved to Adventity Inc., New York, to take up roles involving close client interaction, while being promoted on a fast track basis from an Analyst to Manager within 10 months. Prior to Adventity, as Assistant Manager at Blue Star Infotech, Venkatesh helped in structuring deals and M&A.
Venkatesh is an active CFA charterholder from the CFA Institute, USA and holds a Bachelors degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a Masters degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS).
Harshjit Sethi
Principal, Sequoia Capital
Harshjit advises on investments in early-stage businesses at Sequoia India and is focused on fintech, SaaS and consumer internet sectors. He works closely with BharatPe, Freshworks, smallcase, Turtlemint and Vymo amongst others.
Prior to Sequoia, he was an early employee at Dropbox where he used to lead the android product which he saw scale to hundreds of millions of installs. He has completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from Stanford University where he was a Frederick Terman scholar.
Samir Kumar
MD, Inventus India
Samir is a Partner at Inventus India. He has been an early-stage venture capital investor in India since 2001.
Inventus India invests primarily in Series A rounds in tech ventures – which include Internet, Mobile, SaaS, Blockchain, IoT and ML/AI based applications.
Prior to co-founding Inventus in 2006, Samir led the India venture investing team for Acer Technology Ventures, where he made early-stage investments in the technology space.
Prior to his VC career, Samir spent 15+ years in the IT industry in India in Sales, Marketing and Product Management roles, starting with Computer Point, then moving onto a 10+ year stint with Wipro Infotech, and finally a 2½ year stint with Planetasia.
Samir is a Charter Member of Tie Bangalore, and has been a past member of its Governing Body. He is a Member of the Board of Governors of SINE (technology incubator at IIT Bombay), a member of the Board of Advisors at FabCI (technology incubator at IIT Hyderabad), and on the board of advisors at DERBI (technology incubator at Dayanand Sagar University).
Samir earned his B.Tech from IIT-Bombay in 1984 and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore in 1986, where he was awarded the Best All-Round Outgoing student.
Arpit Maheshwari
Vice President, Stellaris Venture Partners
Arpit believes that startups will use technology to solve uniquely Indian problems and create large world-class companies as a result. As a VC, he is looking forward to working with, and learning from, great entrepreneurs from the early stage of their journey. Prior to VC, Arpit donned many hats - he was a management consultant with BCG, ran product management for automotive and education startups, and corporate innovation for a large manufacturing house.
Shweta Bhatia
Partner, Eight Roads Ventures
Shweta leads the technology, consumer and financial services Ventures team in India. She has over 15 years of experience in venture and growth equity investing. Prior to joining Eight Roads, Shweta was Head of Asia Investments for the Venture Capital & Growth Equity team at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Shweta began her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs based in New York and worked in growth equity investing role at Warburg Pincus in Mumbai before re-joining Goldman Sachs in 2010. Shweta has held board roles with companies that include Whatfix, Chaipoint, Shadowfax, Fabhotels, Indostar, Boss Zhipin (China) and Momo (Vietnam). Shweta received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Smith College.
Eight Roads is the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited. Eight Roads Ventures invests in high-quality, high-growth companies in Asia, Europe and the US, with a focus on healthcare, technology and consumer products. Eight Roads Ventures is committed to making the companies it invests in leaders in their industries through access to patient capital, a powerful network of resources and a team of investment professionals with a proven track record of success. Eight Roads Ventures’ investments in India and Southeast Asia include Icertis, Manthan, Pharmeasy, Chaipoint, Toppr, Shadowfax, Northern Arc, Akulaku, Early Salary, Laurus Labs and Cipla Health.
Sateesh Andra
Partner, Endiya Partners
Sateesh Andra is co-founder and managing director at Endiya Partners, a venture capital firm focused on backing B2B startups at the seed and early stages. A veteran in early stage investing in India, Andra was part of the founding team that set up Draper Fisher Jurvetson's local operations and later led the Ventureast Tenet Fund. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Andra founded and sold Euclid, a Silicon Valley based startup in the IT management and software space.
Dinesh Goel
Partner, Siana Capital
He is a partner with Siana Capital, a deep tech-focused early-stage venture capital firm. He is an active angel investor and mentor to deep tech/science startups: IoT, Cold chain management, AI /ML driven Fraud Detection, Deep data sciences for behavioral insights, cyber security, cyber insurance and 3D printing of human organoids. He has a rich experience of 25 years in strategic leadership and operational management.
VCs on Panel
Alok Goel
Alok leads investing practice around SaaS and Social at SAIF Partners. Prior to this, Alok was CEO of Freecharge (acquired by Snapdeal) and COO of RedBus (acquired by Goibibo). Prior to his startup stints, Alok spent 5 years at Google in Bangalore and Mountain View in various product roles. Alok holds an MBA from India School of Business and a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. He has 3 patents and was listed in the Fortune India 40 under 40 lists for 2014.
Venkatesh Peddi
Mr. Venkatesh Peddi is Executive Director at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has over 17 years of industry experience, including 11 years of venture experience.
Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Venkatesh was Deputy Vice President at Reliance Venture Asset Management – the corporate venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group. He was involved in executing multiple end-to-end investments and was a board member at Gradatim IT Ventures and a board observer at Suvidhaa Infoserve and Pelago Inc. Venkatesh was earlier an Account Manager in Investment Banking division of Adventity, a leading KPO player, where he advised deal teams of leading investment banks at various deal stages. He later moved to Adventity Inc., New York, to take up roles involving close client interaction, while being promoted on a fast track basis from an Analyst to Manager within 10 months. Prior to Adventity, as Assistant Manager at Blue Star Infotech, Venkatesh helped in structuring deals and M&A.
Venkatesh is an active CFA charterholder from the CFA Institute, USA and holds a Bachelors degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a Masters degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS).
Harshjit Sethi
Harshjit advises on investments in early-stage businesses at Sequoia India and is focused on fintech, SaaS and consumer internet sectors. He works closely with BharatPe, Freshworks, smallcase, Turtlemint and Vymo amongst others.
Prior to Sequoia, he was an early employee at Dropbox where he used to lead the android product which he saw scale to hundreds of millions of installs. He has completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from Stanford University where he was a Frederick Terman scholar.
Samir Kumar
Samir is a Partner at Inventus India. He has been an early-stage venture capital investor in India since 2001.
Inventus India invests primarily in Series A rounds in tech ventures – which include Internet, Mobile, SaaS, Blockchain, IoT and ML/AI based applications.
Prior to co-founding Inventus in 2006, Samir led the India venture investing team for Acer Technology Ventures, where he made early-stage investments in the technology space.
Prior to his VC career, Samir spent 15+ years in the IT industry in India in Sales, Marketing and Product Management roles, starting with Computer Point, then moving onto a 10+ year stint with Wipro Infotech, and finally a 2½ year stint with Planetasia.
Samir is a Charter Member of Tie Bangalore, and has been a past member of its Governing Body. He is a Member of the Board of Governors of SINE (technology incubator at IIT Bombay), a member of the Board of Advisors at FabCI (technology incubator at IIT Hyderabad), and on the board of advisors at DERBI (technology incubator at Dayanand Sagar University).
Samir earned his B.Tech from IIT-Bombay in 1984 and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore in 1986, where he was awarded the Best All-Round Outgoing student.
Arpit Maheshwari
Arpit believes that startups will use technology to solve uniquely Indian problems and create large world-class companies as a result. As a VC, he is looking forward to working with, and learning from, great entrepreneurs from the early stage of their journey. Prior to VC, Arpit donned many hats - he was a management consultant with BCG, ran product management for automotive and education startups, and corporate innovation for a large manufacturing house.
Shweta Bhatia
Shweta leads the technology, consumer and financial services Ventures team in India. She has over 15 years of experience in venture and growth equity investing. Prior to joining Eight Roads, Shweta was Head of Asia Investments for the Venture Capital & Growth Equity team at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Shweta began her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs based in New York and worked in growth equity investing role at Warburg Pincus in Mumbai before re-joining Goldman Sachs in 2010. Shweta has held board roles with companies that include Whatfix, Chaipoint, Shadowfax, Fabhotels, Indostar, Boss Zhipin (China) and Momo (Vietnam). Shweta received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Smith College.
Eight Roads is the proprietary investment arm of FIL, Fidelity International Limited. Eight Roads Ventures invests in high-quality, high-growth companies in Asia, Europe and the US, with a focus on healthcare, technology and consumer products. Eight Roads Ventures is committed to making the companies it invests in leaders in their industries through access to patient capital, a powerful network of resources and a team of investment professionals with a proven track record of success. Eight Roads Ventures’ investments in India and Southeast Asia include Icertis, Manthan, Pharmeasy, Chaipoint, Toppr, Shadowfax, Northern Arc, Akulaku, Early Salary, Laurus Labs and Cipla Health.
Sateesh Andra
Sateesh Andra is co-founder and managing director at Endiya Partners, a venture capital firm focused on backing B2B startups at the seed and early stages. A veteran in early stage investing in India, Andra was part of the founding team that set up Draper Fisher Jurvetson's local operations and later led the Ventureast Tenet Fund. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Andra founded and sold Euclid, a Silicon Valley based startup in the IT management and software space.
Dinesh Goel
He is a partner with Siana Capital, a deep tech-focused early-stage venture capital firm. He is an active angel investor and mentor to deep tech/science startups: IoT, Cold chain management, AI /ML driven Fraud Detection, Deep data sciences for behavioral insights, cyber security, cyber insurance and 3D printing of human organoids. He has a rich experience of 25 years in strategic leadership and operational management.