VCCircle

Ankur Warikoo is the CEO of Groupon India, responsible for India operations. Groupon India is part of the 48-country portfolio of Groupon Global spanning 200million subscribers and over $5bn in annual sales. Ankur has been with Groupon India since its entry in April 2011.

Post his management degree from the Indian School of Business, Ankur joined A.T. Kearney Consulting, overseeing projects across multiple industries including Media & Entertainment, Retail, Real Estate. He worked in Delhi, Dubai and New York during this time.

He joined Accentium Web in 2007as a part-time co-founder, while continuing with his role at A.T. Kearney. In 2009, he left Kearney to work on Accentium full-time. Accentium runs websites such as Secondshaadi.com, Gaadi.com, Taaza.com amongst others. After Accentium Ankur joinedRocket Internetin 2010.As a Venture Partner, he supportedinternet startups across the world including Groupon, Jabong, Zalando, Wimdu.

Ankur holds a management degree from the Indian School of Business (Class of 2006) where he was awarded the Young Leader Award. He also holds a Masters degree in Physics from Michigan State University and is a graduate of Hindu College, Delhi University.

Ashish Kashyap is the ‘Founder & CEO’ of ‘ibiboGroup’ and also serves as the CEO of MIH India. He launched "ibiboGroup" in 2007 and drove the creation of leading E-Commerce businesses such as Goibibo.com (Travel); Tradus.com (Marketplace); PayU India (Payment platform).  Ashish has also driven acquisition of Gaadi.com and investment into TravelBoutiqueOnline (a leading B2B travel platform). Prior to founding "ibiboGroup", Ashish was the ‘Country Head’ of ‘Google India’, wherein he set up the domestic business operations from ground up. Before joining Google, Ashish "founded" E-Commerce businesses at Indiatimes.com and drove them to a profitable and scale position. He architected first of its kind “Reverse Auctions"; "Travel Auctions" platform and launched the online marketplace business, Indiatimes Shopping.

Ashish holds an "Economics (Honors)" from University Of Delhi, India and an "International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM)" from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.

Bhavish Aggarwal is the CEO and Co-founder of Ola cabs. Before starting Ola cabs, Bhavish worked with Microsoft Research for two years, where he filed 2 patents and published 3 papers in international journals.

Bhavish started Ola cabs in December 2010, along with Ankit Bhati, a fellow IIT Bombay alumni and aims to change the way we travel in and around our cities revolutionizing the personal transportation industry. He loves cycling and playing squash and most recently spent a whole week cycling in the beautiful Nilgiris!

He has done his Bachelors in Computers Science from IIT Bombay (B.Tech – Computer Science – IIT Bombay).

Mukesh founded Myntra.com in February 2007 with a vision of creating India’s largest on-demand personalization portal. Since then, the company has consistently innovated and expanded into fashion and lifestyle retailing. Today, Myntra.com is the largest ecommerce platform of fashion and lifestyle products with over 500 brands under its banner. Myntra is funded by top tier Venture Capital funds and is among the best funded e-commerce companies in the country.

Mukesh has over 14 years of experience in multiple early stage start-ups in Silicon Valley [NexTag, eWanted, Centrata, newScale] where he has held various senior management positions in Product Management, Marketing and Product Development.

Mukesh holds a B.TechDegree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Muralikrishnan B. is the 36 year old dynamic Country Manager of eBay India. Murali is responsible for leading the eBay business in India, the Philippines & Malaysia & is an active evangelist of eCommerce’s transformational potential for both Indian online shoppers & entrepreneurs.

Murali joined eBay in 2005 and has held a variety of leadership roles in eBay India, most recently as Sr. Director – Marketing & Product Management. His many achievements included driving a scalable hybrid local development model which significantly enhanced and localized eBay India’s user experience. Murali is also responsible for building the eBay India brand & is focused on driving eCommerce trial amongst Indian internet users & fostering buyer engagement. Murali was also responsible for leading eBay India’s foray into Mobile Commerce.

In the course of his career, Murali has worked with Asian Paints managing Sales & Administration in various rural markets. Transitioning into the New Economy in 2000, he played a significant role in starting up India’s largest cybercafé chain, Sify Iways, at Sify Corp and later led Product Management for Sify’s Consumer business.

Murali is a Mechanical Engineer from Osmania University, Hyderabad and an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. An enthusiastic sports fan especially passionate about Cricket & Squash, Murali is also a photography buff spending his spare time behind the camera capturing nature, landscapes and architecture. He is currently relishing the joys of parenthood and bringing up his son.

Nitin Bawankule is Industry Director of Ecommerce, Local & Media for Google India. He is responsible for driving Google’s advertising business for his set of verticals, focusing on acquisition, retention and partnerships.

Prior to this he was Director in Dell for Asia Pacific Japan Region, managing Software and Peripherals portfolio. He has also been the Director for Inside Sales for Dell India; managing large inside sales team to run India sales. Nitin is a seasoned Sales and General Management veteran with over 16 years of experience in the Consumer and IT industry spanning Consumer Electronics, Telecom, and IT. He has extensive experience in direct sales management and Channel Management for Consumer and Corporate sales.

In these roles, Nitin has successfully built and managed geographically disbursed teams in different types of corporate environment. Nitin has also held position as Regional Sales Manager in Motorola and Sales Manager in Whirlpool and Godrej-GE Appliances.

Nitin Nayar joined Warburg Pincus in 2003 and has been working with the firm’s Indian affiliate since 2004. He is involved in the Indian affiliate’s investment advisory activities in India and evaluates opportunities in technology, media and logistics sectors.

Mr. Nayar received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $30 billion in assets under management. Its active portfolio of more than 125 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 13 private equity funds which have invested more than $40 billion in over 650 companies in more than 30 countries. Over the past decade, affiliates of private equity funds raised by Warburg Pincus have invested about US$3 billion in Indian companies. The firm's past and current investments in India include Ambuja Cements, Au Financiers, Bharti Airtel, DB Corp, Diliigent Power, Gangavaram Port, Havells, HDFC, IMC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Lemontree Hotels, NDR Group, Max India, Metropolis Healthcare, Piramal Healthcare, Quest Global, Quikr, Sintex and WNS Global Services. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mumbai, San Francisco, São Paulo and Shanghai.

For more information, please visit www.warburgpincus.com.

Prashanth focuses on investments in the Internet, healthcare, and retail industries.

He serves on boards of BookMyShow, HolidayIQ, PropTiger, BlueStone,QwikCilver/GiftBig, Healthcare Magic, Deeksha, and other early stage companies.

Before joining Accel India, Prashanth was a Partner at Erasmic Venture Fund. Before Erasmic, Prashanth founded NetKraft and established it as one of the leading offshore solutions companies focusing on the retail and healthcare verticals. NetKraft was acquired by Texas-based Adea Systems.

Previously, Prashanth founded VisualReality, a multimedia publishing company.

Prashanth started his career at S3 Technologies USA, a division of GSE systems, building Case Tools for real-time simulations (GemCase).

Education
Prashanth holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Delaware (Maryland), and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the Bangalore Institute of Technology, India.

Praveen Sinha has played a fundamental role in establishing Jabong.com as a brand. In his current role at Jabong.com, he is a Co- Founder and a Managing Director of the company. Praveen’s role encompasses looking after the entire Operations capability along with Supply chain management.  Praveen is an accomplished management consultant and executive with his association / work experience ranging from industry leaders like Mckinsey, Microsoft and MarutiUdyog to diverse small businesses/startups. He is a successful turn-around specialist, specializing in not only strategizing but also implementation, improving operations, and building management systems and process. An alumnus of the reputed Delhi College of Engineering and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Praveen brings to the table vast corporate experience with an uncanny knack to build a business from scratch.

Besides this, he also acted as an energy advisory and auditor for plants in China, Thailand, Taiwan and India across sectors - cement, steel and power plants.

Building a business from scratch and taking it to the peak of success is a passion with Praveen and before Jabong.com, and he has proved that as part of office mobile release team for Microsoft, for US based startup Akeebo and consumer durable startup AquaBrim.

Praveen has always been fascinated with the growing e-commerce concept in varied sectors. One of the driving forces behind the formation of Jabong.com was Praveen’s sheer passion and interest in the e-retailing sector and its growth potential.

Praveen’slinkedin profile has also made it to "Power Profiles 2012: The most Viewed Professionals on LinkedIn in India".

Sachin Bansal, 28, is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Flipkart.com. Sachin hails from Chandigarh and did his schooling there before pursuing his engineering at IIT Delhi. He started his career at Techspan, a systems-integration and consulting firm, delivering business and IT solutions. In 2006 he moved to Amazon.com, after realising that his interests lay in developing software products.

After a short stint at Amazon, Sachin and Binny Bansal (also from Chandigarh and classmates at IIT Delhi) launched Flipkart.com, in 2007, with the intention to be the leading e-commerce destination in India. The experience at Amazon and personal experiences with the Indian e-commerce market helped Sachin define Flipkart’s service offering. Flipkart was and is about creating an e-commerce portal that offered superior customer service and delivered what it promised. Starting with books, Flipkart is today India’s largest online bookstore and have recently forayed into new categories such as Music, Movies, Games and Mobile Phones. Sachin is a connoisseur of electronic gadgets and if he has his way, Flipkart will have reasonable chunk of its revenue in the coming years, coming in from electronic goods.

Samir is currently the Managing Director of Inventus Advisory Services India. He has been an early-stage venture investor in India since 2001.  Prior to co-founding Inventus, Samir led the India venture investing team for Acer Technology Ventures, where he made early-stage investments in the technology space.

Prior to his venture capital career, Samir spent 15+ years in the IT industry in India in various sales, marketing and product management roles. He started his working career with Computer Point in 1986, before moving onto Wipro Infotech in 1988, where he spent 10+ years. Samir then spent 2 ½ years with Planetasia from 1999-2001.

Samir is an active Charter Member of Tie Bangalore, where he has been elected to the Governing Body.

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.

Shrenik is a commerce graduate from Sydenham College, Mumbai and a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Thereafter, Shrenik completed his post-graduation in business management from IIM Bangalore. He is also a Certified Investment Manager from the Securities and Investment Institute, UK.

He joined Brand Capital from Enam Securities where he was Executive Director – Investment Banking. He also set up the first international office for Enam in the UK.

Shrenik has over 16 years of experience in the areas of financial audit, management consulting, as well as Investment banking and has worked for companies like Lodha & Co., Accenture and A.T. Kearney prior to joining Enam. He has worked on several advisory mandates and has advised several clients (including the Tata Group) in Investment Banking.

Sundeep Malhotra is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of HomeShop18, India’s first virtual retail enterprise from the Network18 group. He has successfully built the leading home shopping TV channel, largest e-commerce website and now the m-commerce business for Homeshop18.

A veteran in the retail sector, Sundeep Malhotra conceptualized and established the home shopping industry in India, which today has become an accessible retail platform and credible retail avenue for shoppers and brands. 

Sundeep Malhotra has over 20 years of retail and FMCG experience. Prior to Homeshop18, he was the Executive Vice President Sales for PepsiCo India. Earlier to Pepsi, he had a 5 year stint with Benetton India, as their Head Sales & Marketing for the Indian subcontinent and a 10 year stint with Bata India Ltd, across various functions from Brand Management to Retail Head.

Mr. Malhotra has been a leading voice for the Indian retail industry. He is currently the Co-Chairman of FICCI’s Retail Committee. He has been recognized by numerous awards. He was most recently awarded “Retail Entrepreneur of the Year” at the Star Retailer Awards 2012.

Sundeep Malhotra is an alumnus of the prestigious Delhi University. He earned his master’s from AIMA Delhi.

Gaurav launched his fund, Epiphany Ventures, focused on investing in early stage companies in late 2008.

He started his career working as a consultant at Diamond Technology Partners Inc. (DTPI), a strategy consulting company, headquartered in Chicago. At DTPI, Gaurav advised fortune 500 clients on leveraging technology to achieve their business objectives. He gained tremendous experience in a wide range of disciplines and sectors, including Retail, e-commerce, Knowledge Management, Merger Integrations, etc.

After his return to India, in 2004, Gaurav founded a business in the mining sector, which he exited in 2007. He has also serves as the Vice-President, M&A for the $250 million Facor Group. He sits on the boards of his portfolio companies, MXC Solutions and Brattle Foods.

Gaurav has a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania, and M.Sc in Finance from City University, London. He is a Charter Member at TIE, and a member of Entrepreneurs, Organization and Indian Angel Network.

Mithun Sacheti finished his undergrad studies and took the first flight out to the USA, to enrol and get certified as a gemologist from the Gemmological Institute of America, California (GIA). His passion for jewellery and all things diamond drove him to set up his first store (for Jaipur Gems), just a few days after his return! After overseeing Jaipur Gem’s expansion into South India, including into Chennai and Coimbatore, Mithun headed towards e-commerce.

Realizing the huge potential of online retail in India and using his background/experience in jewellery and diamonds, Mithun laid the blueprint for CaratLane.com. His vision of selling solitaires and diamond jewellery over the internet was shared by a man whose expertise lay in a complementing area. With Srinivasa Gopalan, Mithun started CaratLane.com in 2007, with the site going live in 2008. From then, it’s been a journey of crossing milestone after milestone! Recognizing the leadership provided in growing CaratLane, TiE felicitated Mithun with the “Next-Gen Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in 2012.

Mithun combines jewellery expertise with a passion for jewellery technology. He has ensured that every piece produced for CaratLane.com is manufactured to perfect specifications, so when our customers lay hands on their jewellery, they get exactly what they saw online. Few e-retailers can live up on specs like CaratLane.com! Today, Mithun oversees business strategy and direction at CaratLane.com. When not hobnobbing with diamonds, Mithun is an active badminton and squash player and a complete cricket aficionado.

Supam Maheshwari is the Co-founder and CEO of FirstCry.com and GoodLife.com. He has been instrumental in leading FirstCry to the top in a very short span of time and raising two rounds of funding ( $18 Million) for Brainbees Solutions which owns FirstCry.com and GoodLife.com.

Prior to this, Supam had Co- founded Brainvisa Technologies Pvt. Ltd in the year 2000, which was one of the top notch e-learning companies in the world, which he sold to Indecomm Global Services Pvt. Ltd.  in 2007 for about $25 Million. Supam has  a wide array of experience in the corporate field with brief stints in companies like Vivendi and Pepsi. He was one of the youngest pioneers of eLearning solutions from the Indian sub-continent.

Supam Maheshwari holds an engineering degree from Delhi College of Engineering, and an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.

A Management Graduate with an additional PGD in Computer Management, Vivek is the Chief Operating Officer at Avenues. Prior to joining Avenues in the year 2002, Vivek has had thirteen years of experience working in critical operational and decision making positions in the areas of business development, brand management for India's leading brands during his stint in the Indian subsidiaries of some of the top global companies including WPP Group, Draft FCB and Grey Worldwide.

Vivek manages functions related to Operations, Brand Development, Corporate Communications, Customer Support and HR. His past experience in strategic business development and corporate planning has proven invaluable in determining divisional strategy, setting up of operational and performance goals that are tailored to each division and in allocating requisite resources among divisions. He also oversees the HR function and works on strategies to build human core competencies that are in line with organizational values.

Vivek is a popular speaker at various forums and is an ardent evangelist on eCommerce. He is a prolific writer and his articles on the industry have appeared in many business publications.

Niren brings to NVP India 16 years of operational, finance, investment banking and entrepreneurial experience from leading consumer oriented companies and global financial institutions. Niren serves as an advisor on India-based investments across a wide range of sectors and across various stages – from early and mid-stage venture to growth equity. Niren advised Norwest Venture Partners' investments in Cholamandalam, DealsandYou.com, FashionandYou.com, Komli Media, Pepperfry, Quikr, Ratnakar Bank, Shriram City Union Finance and Suvidhaa.

Prior to joining NVP India, Niren was the Senior Director of Strategy and Ventures at eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) in California, where he helped drive the worldwide strategy across eBay’s Global Marketplaces. Niren was also part of the Marketplaces Ventures leadership team, where he was responsible for considering new business opportunities, acquisitions and potential investments across the Global Marketplaces. The Marketplaces business unit is eBay’s largest business unit and conducts gross merchandise volume of more than $50 billion annually.

Niren obtained his masters in commerce from University of Mumbai where he was the recipient of the "University of Mumbai Gold Medal" and the "M.A. Master Gold Medal" for standing first across the University of Mumbai. Niren is also a rank-holder Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Niren graduated from Sydenham College and was the recipient of the United Bank of India scholarship as part of the Bachelors program.

Kunal manages the strategic vision, key business relationships, fundraising and growth plans for Snapdeal.com. He is an engineer from University of Pennsylvania, with a business degree from The Wharton School and an executive marketing program at Kellogg School of Management.

Kunal along with Rohit Bansal, started Snapdeal.com in February 2010, and has been instrumental in building it into India’s leading online marketplace, with a wide assortment of products across various categories from thousands of regional, national, and international brands and retailers. With over 18 million members, Snapdeal.com is the shopping destination for internet users across the country, delivering to 4000+ cities and towns in India.

His prior experiences also include product management and business development with Microsoft's emerging markets group, and at Deloitte Consulting as a consultant in the company's telecom practice in New York and Pennsylvania. He also launched a consumer product brand in the US. Kunal has won many accolades including QVC Consumer Innovation Award for a consumer product company. Kunal is passionate about Financial markets, Cults, Politics and Yoga. He loves reading Travel literature, Business drama, Leonardo da Vinci, and is also extremely fond of backpacking through remote parts of the world.

Srinivas represents entrepreneurs and businesses on corporate governance issues, fund raising, partnerships, joint ventures, collaborations, acquisitions and exits including listing. He also advises Investment Funds in their investment into companies and businesses. Srinivas also heads the Hyderabad office of the firm, which was voted as the law firm of the year for 2010 and 2011 and IFLR.

Srinivas has been listed in Chambers & Partners as a leading individual in Corporate/ M&A field (Bangalore based) in Band 1. He is also an advisors to business across various sectors and is a member of the board of several companies. Srinivas is also a trustee and advisor to certain charitable foundations & projects.

Kartik Varma is the co-founder of PropTiger.com, India's largest online real estate broker that helps first time home buyers purchase new homes. Previously, Kartik had co-founded iTrust Financial Advisors, an online personal finance business helping middle class Indian families with their investment, loan, insurance, tax and financial planning activities, and successfully sold the business to the Karvy Group.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Kartik worked as an investor at the Ziff family office in New York and London and thereafter at TCI Fund, Europe's best performing hedge fund. Prior to becoming an investor, he worked at James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. a specialist M&A boutique advisory firm in New York.

During his undergraduate years, Kartik was an actor and production manager with Stagedoor, India's largest theatre company. He hold degrees from Delhi University, London School of Economics and Harvard Business School. During his MBA, he attempted to start a Formula 1 racing team, and currently writes a regular column on sports marketing for the Economic Times. Kartik is based out of Delhi NCR.

Mr. Manik Arora is Founder & Managing Director of IDG Ventures India.  IDG Ventures manages over US$6 Billion globally and has a portfolio of over 200 technology companies.  Manik is based in Bangalore and advises on investments in Internet, Mobile, Software and Services.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Vserv Digital, Sourcebits Technologies, Ozone Media and Brainbees Solutions (Firstcry.com & Goodlife.com).

Prior to IDG Ventures India, Manik was at Battery Ventures in Silicon Valley where he led the firm’s India practice and also worked with General Atlantic (GA) in Singapore.    He was part of the founding management team at GA-backed i-DNS International, the global leader in multilingual Internet DNS technology.  Previously, Manik led sales and marketing for MasterCard International in Singapore and managed global outsourcing initiatives for American Express in New York.  His early career was as a management consultant focused on strategy and organization building at The Boston Consulting Group in India and South East Asia.

Manik is a Kauffman Fellow at the Center for Venture Education and a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Swarthmore College where he received a McCabe Fellowship to pursue his MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.