Vikram Gupta is the Founder and Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures, a leading USD 600 million venture capital firm, recognized as one of India’s largest homegrown VC funds. IvyCap Ventures backs over 50 innovative companies across diverse sectors, including HealthTech, ConsumerTech, DeepTech, FinTech, EdTech, AgriTech, and EV. The portfolio includes some of India’s most notable emerging brands like Bluestone, Purplle, Biryani By Kilo, Miko, FtCash, Snitch, Celcius Logistics, Dhruva Space, and Beatoven, showcasing IvyCap's commitment to fostering growth in both tech and consumer-driven markets.
Under Vikram's leadership, IvyCap pioneered India’s first Endowment Fund at IIT Delhi, launched in 2019 by the Honorable President of India. This initiative exemplifies IvyCap’s distinctive approach, reinvesting a portion of its profits into seeding of endowment funds across various educational institutes of India including IITs and IIMs. The idea of these funds is to strengthen the educational ecosystem of the country and to produce many entrepreneurs, innovators and intellectual property from India. IvyCap’s governance framework, supported by distinguished industry experts and IIT/IIM faculty on its Board of Advisors, ensures robust decision-making and value creation for its portfolio companies.
Through IvyCap’s alumni and mentorship network, Vikram also emphasizes hands-on support, providing critical guidance to help startups achieve sustainable growth and success. Prior to IvyCap, Vikram was the founding member of the Piramal-sponsored USD 100 million Healthcare-focused Private Equity Fund, which he successfully raised during the 2008 economic downturn. He holds a B.Tech. from IIT Delhi, where he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, USA, where he has been honoured with the Distinguished Hall of Fame award.
Mr. Ashish Wadhwani is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures. Mr. Wadhwani has over 25 years of experience in Venture Capital, M&A, and Strategy Consulting. During his career, he has led and managed investments of over USD 750m and also a NASDAQ listing. In addition, he has worked on about 15 M&A transactions and advised over 40+ companies on business strategy and growth, implementing new business models, mergers, and acquisitions across Asia, India, and Europe. He sits on the board of several privately held companies in India and Asia. He sits on the board of TiE, Singapore and Enabling leadership.
He is a regular speaker and author on thought leadership topics. Mr. Wadhwani's expertise spans Technology, Energy, Consumer, and Manufacturing verticals. He holds a postgraduate diploma in management from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech. degree from IIT Delhi.
Vishal is the Co-founder and Partner at IvyCap Ventures. He is an active advisor for portfolio startups on business development, global market penetration, and their business growth strategy.
Vishal is an experienced operator with an exceptional set of accomplishments and professional capabilities. A successful business builder, Vishal in his past roles, has been instrumental in defining vision and strategy, developing new markets and expanding operations leading sustainable growth in both early and late-stage ventures. As President of Nagarro, he led its growth across North America leading to its acquisition by Allgeier and subsequent public listing (FRA:NGRRF). Most recently, he was the President and Chief Strategy Officer at Incedo, a data analytics solutions firm, and President, Americas at Seclore, a data-centric security SaaS company.
As a technologist in his early career, he developed commercially successful products for General Electric and Lam Research. He is an inventor on 18 patents in areas such as composite materials, ceramic processing, UV technology and plasma reactors. He remains constantly curious with a relentless passion for learning new technologies.
Vishal holds a PhD from the Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Technology degree from IIT Delhi.
Beyond work, he enjoys biking, golf and travel during his leisure time. Vishal is an active supporter of social causes, where he serves as volunteer, board member or advisor. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family, where he has been since 2001.
Sonia is the Co-Founder of IvyCap Ventures and has over 18 years of experience in Operations, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship. She has held leadership positions across various well-known companies in India and abroad.
Sonia is a seasoned entrepreneur having founded and exited four companies while having an excellent track record of building businesses from scratch. She has incubated companies in Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO), hospitality, and healthcare industries. She has been involved in various mergers and acquisitions activities of her incubated companies.
Sonia has rich experience in handling Investor Relations and Compliances covering aspects such as Fundraising & Investor Onboarding, streamlining robust processes to service Investors, disseminating regular Investor reports and relevant information, resolving ad-hoc queries, Supervising Compliances at Portfolio Companies, RBI & SEBI Reporting, etc.
She holds a B.A. in Economics from Delhi University and dual MBA degrees in Marketing and Finance from Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, and IMT, Ghaziabad.
Anju is the President & Co-Founder of IvyCamp, (A global alumni-based engagement initiative of IvyCap Ventures) that is an IIT/IIM Alumni based startup engagement platform in India that leverages the Alumni Ecosystem to help founders enhance their skills, accelerate their business, engage in corporate innovation programs, and connect with investors.
Anju focuses her efforts on working with founders to explore their potential to the fullest through mentoring, corporate engagements, accelerator programs, and more. She is strongly committed to helping build out the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Anju is an IITD and Stanford Alumnus. She has over 15 years of experience in product management and marketing in the software industry. After her Ph.D. at Stanford, she worked in several roles at Risk Management Solutions Inc., in California, the leading provider of catastrophe risk models for the global re/insurance industry. Her roles included building risk assessment models for earthquakes, leading RMS's first ASP weather derivatives product, leading the product management team for RMS's core catastrophe software product, and helping to lay the groundwork for RMS's next-generation modeling platform.
She has authored many publications in catastrophe risk management and has worked on projects with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Office of Emergency Services, PG&E, Insurance companies, and risk managers in the commercial sector in the USA.
GK Pillai IAS(Retd) has been the Chairman of IvyCap Ventures since 2011. He is also a Distinguished Alumni of IIT Madras. Among his many appointments at both state and national levels, Mr. Pillai joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1972 and belonged to the Kerala cadre before he worked as a Special Secretary, Secretary Health, and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Kerala Mr. AK Antony.
He has served the Ministries of Defence, Surface Transport, Home, and Commerce at the Central Government. As Joint Secretary (North East), MHA, he was involved in the negotiation with most of the insurgent groups in the region. As Special Secretary/Secretary in Commerce, he was closely associated with the enactment of the SEZ Act 2005, which led to the establishment of hundreds of Special Economic Zones and the creation of over 11 lakh jobs. He was also India's chief negotiator at the WTO. He retired as Union Home Secretary in 2011. Post-retirement, GK Pillai has worked with several NGOs in the field of health and road safety. He is currently on the Board of Tata International Ltd and Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd.
Pradeep Gupta is the Chairman of the CyberMedia Group, the specialty media house, with brands like Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice; Data, DARE, CIOL, Global Services, etc. Its subsidiary CMRSL is a leading provider of Digital Marketing services. Pradeep is an Angel investor and
has mentored over 250 start-ups. Pradeep was conferred the "National Entrepreneurship Award as the Best Mentor" by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India. He is on the Investment Management Committee of the 10,000 crore Fund of Funds set up by the Government of India. Pradeep is the Chief Mentor of Electropreneur Park, Delhi, Bhubaneshwar.
He is the co-founder of Indian Angel Network, Asia's largest angel network with more than 700 members that has done over 200 angel investments. Currently, IAN invests in 30-40 deals each year. Pradeep was a global trustee of TiE, the world's largest entrepreneurial ecosystem with 12,000 members, including over 2,500 charter members in 60 chapters across 17 countries. He Chairs the IIT Alumni Trust of IvyCap Ventures. IvyCap manages $250 mn across 3 funds. Pradeep was the GP of India's first angel fund, Infinity Ventures. He was on the Board of UTI AMC and its subsidiary UTI Capital which ran the $80 mn India Infrastructure Development Fund (IIDF).
He has been the past President of Pan IIT India and the Association of Indian Magazines. He has been on the Boards of IIT Mandi, Indian Newspaper Society, IIT Delhi incubator, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, IIT Startups, Lemon Tree Hotels, etc. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni award of IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta and the Helen Keller award for working in the disability sector. Pradeep is an Engineer from IIT Delhi (1975) and an MBA from IIM Calcutta (1977).
Ravi Dhariwal is the co-founder and Chairman of Sagacito Technologies, a data analytics firm specializing in helping enterprises maximize their revenues. He is also a Senior Advisor, Mentor, and Board Member of several leading listed and private firms.
Just before co-founding Sagacito, Ravi was the Group CEO of Bennett & Coleman, India's largest media company, with diversified media platforms including Radio Mirchi, Times Television Network, Times Internet, Times OOH, and the world's largest selling English newspaper The Times of India.
Ravi was also the World-Wide President of the International News Media Association from 2011-2013. He was honored for his voluntary contribution to World News Media in 2014.
Before joining Bennett & Coleman, Ravi worked with PepsiCo for 12 years. He was Pepsi's first employee in India and launched Pepsi brands in India helping build a successful business. He also led the Beverage Business in India, Africa, and South East Asia for PepsiCo.
Ravi started his career with Unilever in India in 1977 and worked for them in India and Australia for over 12 years mostly in Sales and Marketing management.
In his career now spanning over 44 years, he has built consumer businesses all over the world. He has worked in diverse and varied cultures and helped companies win customer loyalty and consumer regard.
Ravi is an Engineer from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He was bestowed the Distinguished Alumni Award by IIM Calcutta in 2013 and also from IIT Kanpur in 2019.
Mr. Ashank Desai is the Founder, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Mastek Ltd. Mastek employs 6500 professionals, publicly held IT players providing Enterprise Solutions to Government, Health, and Retail in North America, Europe, the UK, and Asia. Majesco, the emerging entity from Mastek, was listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)/ NASDAQ from 2015 till 2020 before being acquired by a PE firm. It is the first Pure-Play Software Products company from India to be listed on US Stock Exchanges.
Mr. Desai graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. He is one of the founder members & Past Chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and a former President of the Asian Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO).
Mr. Desai is actively involved in the field of Entrepreneurship, Education, and Social Service. He is a member of Governing Board of IIM Ahmedabad and the Chairman of Governing Board Society of Goa Institute of Management (GIM). He is Vice-Chairman of an IIT, Bombay Start-up Incubation organization called Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE). Contributed to around 150+ Startups, by connecting them to Industry through a platform created in CII-Western Region.
Mr. Desai has been involved in CII for the last 10 years as a Committee Member and Chairman of various sub-committees at the Regional as well as National levels. He is also the Vice Chairman of, Governing Board of Bombay First, an NGO working on the mission to make Mumbai a world-class city.
In 2015 he was felicitated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his contribution to NASSCOM & IT Industry over the last 25 years. He has been conferred with the "Distinguished Alumnus" Award from IIT Bombay and "Fellow of the Society & by Computer Society of India (CSI) in recognition of his services to the Indian IT Industry as an entrepreneur and for his contribution to the growth of education. For the last 11 years, his Founding efforts, Donation, and Board presence in 4 / 5 NGOs have impacted around 2 lac teenagers and adults in the low-income category, by providing Leadership & Vocational -entrepreneurial training, and Health care.
Nishith Desai is the founder of the research & strategy-driven international law firm. Nishith Desai Associates is ranked amongst the Asia-Pacific's Most Innovative Law Firms by Financial Times. Nishith's interests span a wide spectrum of law, society, and ethics. He is a renowned International lawyer, author, lecturer, researcher, innovator, and thought leader. Nishith is regarded as the 'Father of International Tax' in India and is a 'true pioneer' in the field of International Tax Law. He was also a director on the board of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (2011-2019). Soon after India opened its economy to the outside world in 1991, Nishith pioneered the roots of the asset management industry in India. He has assisted the Governments of Mauritius and India in launching their offshore financial centers.
He has worked closely with Nobel Laureate Prof Yunus on social issues and personally received Prof. Mohd. Yunus Social Business Pioneer of India' in 2010.
Prof. Ashok Misra is currently a NASI (National Academy of Sciences, India) Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Earlier he was Director at IIT Bombay (2000-08); Chairman-India Intellectual Ventures (2008-16); at IIT Delhi (1977-2000) and at Monsanto Chemical Co. (1974-77). He obtained his B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur (1968) M.S. from Tufts University (1969) and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts (1974).
Prof. Misra is a Director on the Boards of Jubilant Pharmova Ltd., Kirloskar Electric Company Ltd., and Higher Education Financing Agency. Earlier he has been on the Boards of Reliance Industries Ltd., Jubilant Pharma Ltd., National Thermal Power Corporation and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd. He has held several responsibilities with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, including Chairman of the Standing Committee of the IIT Council and Chairman Board of Governors of IIT Roorkee.
He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences India and was its President from 2006-08; a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering; Founder President of the Polymer Processing Academy; former President of the Society of Polymer Science, India; Founder President of IIT Alumni Centre, Bengaluru and member of several professional societies.
Hari is an active angel investor . He practices lean startup principles and encourages founders to think global, act local and build an organisational culture suitable for innovation in startups. He has led several deals in Indian Angel Network and led exits for IAN investors other than providing strategic advice and fundraising support to portfolio companies.
Hari actively works with founders and facilitates their objective and key results (OKR) process.
He is a member of the Investment Committee of IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP).
Hari has been an entrepreneur since 1987. He was one of the early adapters of the internet and his portal Calcutta Online ( www.calonline.com) was acquired by a NASDAQ listed company in 1998. He co-founded Ontrack Systems Limited in 1988. He is the past President of TiE- Kolkata , COMPASS , CIITA and has held key positions in trade bodies (NASSCOM , CII , BBG, ICC , FAIITA ), trusts and non profit organisations. Hari now spends his time supporting innovative entrepreneurs , learning and researching on lean startup methodologies , disruptive business models and frugal innovation .
Prof. Ashok Gupta was superannuated in June 2022 as a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi. He obtained his B. Tech. in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1979 and Ph. D. from IIT Delhi in 1984. He has about forty years of research and teaching experience in India and abroad. He has held visiting research and teaching appointments at MIT (USA), EPFL (Switzerland), and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He has been Professor-in-charge of Planning from 2004 to 2007, Dean of Alumni Affairs and International Programmes from 2007 to 2011, Dean, Infrastructure from 2012 to 2014 in IIT, Delhi, and a Member, the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi from 2014 to 2015, Deputy Director(Operations) 2016 to 2019.
Dr. Mahesh Panchagnula is the Dean, & Alumni, and Corporate Relations at IIT Madras. His energy, entrepreneurial bent, and persuasive skills have melded together to build robust alumni and corporate CSR connections with IIT Madras, raising a national record-breaking high funding to the tune of INR.300+ Cr in just the last three years. Armed with a B.Tech from India1 Institution, IIT Madras, and both an M.S and a Ph.D. from the world-renowned Purdue University, Dr. Mahesh is a professor at IIT Madras' Department of Applied Mechanics. With an illustrious 20+ years' career of teaching and research (59 publications, 2 patents) to his credit, Prof.Mahesh has undertaken innumerable global teaching and consulting assignments and is a seasoned, sought-after speaker addressing packed audiences on a wide range of topics, including alumni relations to applied mechanics, entrepreneurship to education, impact to innovation, to name a few.
A man of many hats, Prof. Mahesh ideated and launched a pan-India Science and Technology Magazine, IIT Madras Shaastra, the first of its kind in the country, to feature the best of Indian Science and Tech. The magazine has been well-received in India, receiving appreciation from the Vice President of India. Mahesh has also pioneered the growth of 'IIT Madras Incubation Cell' as the Professor-in-charge and Board member, this Cell has now become the best tech incubator in the country with 220+ startups. Some of his career highlights include working with DRDO to design mission-critical elements of the Kaveri Gas Turbine engine and also the creation of India's first model to understand the onset of stampedes in dense crowds.
Prof. Sanghi obtained his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1985. His M.S. degree was from Cornell University and his Ph.D. was from the Levich Institute of the City University of New York. Immediately after his Ph.D. he returned to India and joined IIT Delhi as a faculty member in the Applied Mechanics Department where he has been Professor since 2006. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi and the Head of the Educational Technology Service Centre at IIT Delhi. He has also been affiliated with the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme at IITD. He was also a visiting Professor at the University of Sussex from 2007-08.
Prof Sanghi has won many awards for teaching excellence, including the distinguished TA award at Cornell University and the Distinguished Teaching award at IIT Delhi. His primary area of research is Fluid Mechanics and he has published several articles in several reputed journals.
Prof. Contractor obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from IIT Bombay. After carrying out post-doctoral research at Carleton University, Canada, and Texas A& M University, U.S.A., he returned to join the faculty at IIT Bombay in 1984 and retired as Institute Chair Professor in the Department of Chemistry in 2015. He has been actively involved in studying the electrochemistry of conducting polymers for more than thirty years. Prof. Contractor was actively involved in setting up the Desai-Sethi Centre for Entrepreneurship, IIT Bombay. He is also part of the Global Business Forum, an IITBAA initiative to bring technology experts, entrepreneurs, investors, and government leaders on a common platform to promote technology-driven business opportunities that can make a difference. Prof. Contractor is also a member of the Board of Advisors, IIT Alumni Trust, IvyCap Ventures.
He has about 38 years of experience in commercial and development banking in various facets of financing MSMEs and large corporates, micro-credit, asset recovery, venture capital, credit guarantees and core business functions of banks/financial institutions having worked with UcoBank, IDBI,CGTMSE and SIDBI.In his last assignment, besides holding charge of SIDBI, he was also the Chairman of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd, Indian SME Asset Reconstruction Co.Ltd, Indian SME Technology Services Ltd and SIDBI Trustee Co. Ltd. He presently chairs the Board of Capital Small Finance Bank Ltd and is also on the Boards/Advisory Boards of various organizations/NBFCs. An alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi, Mr. Maini also holds a Degree in Law from Delhi University. He holds Postgraduate qualifications in Management from MDI and International Trade from IIFT, besides being a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance. He has also undergone top management training programmes at Harvard Law School, Stanford and Cranfield schools of Management.
He is a recipient of the prestigious ‘ Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to the Microfinance Sector’ at the Inclusive India Forum instituted by HSBC and Access Development Services.
Satish Kini, a visionary management coach, and social entrepreneur is the former Chief Operating Officer in the PANIIT Alumni movement's Nation Building Projects. He spent his early professional career with IDM Ltd providing IT Consulting & Solutions to Indian corporates. His first entrepreneurial venture was Trust-House which provided Management & IT Consulting to Corporates and the SME sector in areas such as Business Transformation, BPR, Application of ICT, and people empowerment.
In early 2000, Kini became a pioneer in the Indian healthcare industry by identifying key issues in the sector such as the failure and apathy of the state to provide basic & affordable healthcare leading to rampant malpractices and exploitation of the poor by unregulated medical practitioners. Addressing this problem, he took up the challenge to transform Healthcare to be People sensitive, Accessible & Affordable. He founded "21st Century Health" which has benefited 30 million patients in 400+ Hospitals, Diagnostic Centres, and Clinics in India, Middle East & Africa. In 2010, he received the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award.
Kini earned his Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and a PGDMM at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management and Sciences.
Smita Mishra is the founder of Fandoro Technologies, a SaaS startup & consulting firm that helps businesses become planet-positive through the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals framework. They help enterprises build purpose-led businesses by identifying and managing their sustainability-related risks and opportunities. Smita is an experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services, retail, banking, and utility industries. As a computer science engineer, Smita is skilled in data analytics and user experience. She's also adept in the areas of business risk mitigation for tech products as well as project/product/test management. Aside from also being an international speaker on technology and diversity in tech, Smita also engages with different forums to assist the growth of women in her field.
Madhuri Sawant is the Vice President - Legal & Compliance of IvyCap Ventures. She has 8+ years of experience on matters ranging from company formation to closure, including investment term sheets, business contracts, employment terms, stock options, corporate compliances, trademarks, FDI, GDPR, business transfer, joint venture, exits (strategic or otherwise), etc.
Before IvyCap Ventures, Madhuri was a Senior Associate at Burgeon Law Firm and worked at GREX as well. She is a Lawyer from ILS Law College and a Company Secretary by profession with a Master's & degree in Business Law from NLS Bangalore.
She is the in-house legal counsel and monitors compliances as per applicable regulations for the funds.
Aashish has over 7 years of experience in early-stage investing and investment banking. He has been instrumental in investing, managing, and helping founders build consumer brands and platforms. He has played a sector agnostic role, throughout his investing years, covering consumer internet, consumer brands, fintech, logistics, and B2B platforms.
Before joining ivyCap, Aashish was part of the investment team at Fosun RZ Capital, a leading global VC fund with an AUM of $1.3Bn, where he invested in India and South East Asia markets. At Fosun, he was instrumental in managing 6 companies and successfully exiting 2 companies generating stellar returns equivalent to the fund & total deployment in startups in India. Before Fosun, he spent 4+ years at Carpediem Capital, a domestic early-to-mid market PE fund, focused on early-stage investing across consumer-tech and B2B managed services. He was one of the early employees of the fund and was instrumental in managing 3 companies. He focused on sourcing, investing, managing, and exiting the investments. Before Carpediem, he spent time at Yes Securities in the investment banking division, with a focus on executing transactions in the Media & Technology sector, and BDO India in the transaction advisory division focusing on valuations for startups and M&A transactions.
Aashish is a Chartered Accountant and CFA Level III cleared. He is also a B.Com graduate from H.R College in Mumbai.
Harshit brings 9+ years of experience across investment banking, private equity, and venture capital. Before IvyCap, he led deal evaluation and managed C-level relationships at a US-based middle-market PE firm (Kingfish Group) and spearheaded early-stage investing & M&A at Scaale Capital, a boutique investment bank.
Harshit has a B.Com from Savitribai Phule Pune University and is a CFA Charterholder.
Aashish has over 6 years of experience, with nearly 4 years in the startup ecosystem as an early-stage investor, M&A specialist, and strategy leader. He worked with BrightChamps (an EdTech startup) as a Director of Strategy and with InfoEdge Ventures as an investment professional for Seed and Series A investments. He has experience with over 20 early-stage deals across various sectors. He holds a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Aashish is an enthusiastic squash player, quant buff, people person, and passionate puzzle solver.