Merisis Wealth Appoints Shobit Gupta as Head of Fund Management

Merisis Wealth, the wealth management business unit of the investment banking firm Merisis Advisors, has appointed Shobit Gupta as Head of Fund Management. Gupta will spearhead the fixed-income strategy and will be responsible for curating and managing debt portfolio management service strategies for institutional, UHNI, and family office clients at Merisis Wealth. The move aims to strengthen the leadership team of Merisis Wealth, which offers wealth management with an alternatives edge to its clientele. 

Shobit Gupta - Merisis Wealth

Merisis Advisors is a 13-year-old boutique investment banking firm with a successful track record of $3Bn in total transaction value across fundraising and M&As. It has worked with several stakeholders across ecosystems, including VCs, PEs, family offices, founders, strategic investors, and professional services firms across its advisory services.

Commenting on the appointment, Fazal Ahad, Managing Director, Merisis Advisors, said, “Shobit’s appointment is a significant step to enhance our wealth management business offerings. We launched Merisis Wealth with a USP – to curate and offer differentiated products and strategies in our own PMS and AIF schemes. Shobhit’s experience will help us do that. I look forward to working with Shobit to expand our wealth 
offerings to our customers.”

Shobit Gupta joins Merisis Wealth from Exide Life Insurance where he last worked as the SVP and Head of Fixed Income. He comes with 26 years of work experience and has worked with marquee brands such as Kotak AMC, Reliance AMC, Principal AMC, and ABN AMRO Bank. He is a CFA Charterholder (CFA Institute - USA & ICFAI Hyderabad) and has a PGDBA (ICFAI Business School - Delhi). 

Ruchir Kapoor, Director, Merisis Wealth, said, “We are excited to have Shobit on board. His vast experience and in-depth knowledge in managing Fixed Income/Asset Allocation portfolios and FX Derivatives, brings unique strength to curate alternative strategies in managing client portfolios. With his appointment, we aim to strengthen the leadership at Merisis Wealth and pursue our goal to create and offer both newer and differentiated products and Services for our valued clients.”

Shobit Gupta, Head of Fund Management, Merisis Wealth, said, “I am very excited to be part of Merisis Wealth’s journey. Merisis has a strong track record across its investment banking business and its product suite like AIFs and PMS reinforces its vision to bring newer products to its clients. With Fixed Income Investments gaining recognition and becoming an integral part of investment portfolios, our endeavor will be to offer a combination of duration and credit products on a strategic/tactical and opportunistic basis given the client investment time frame and risk–reward dynamics.”

Merisis Wealth, part of the Merisis group, is a Mumbai- and Bengaluru-based wealth management firm offering advisory and financial services to entrepreneurs, corporates, professionals, and NRIs. Its synergy with the Merisis investment banking business enables it to bring an alternatives edge to its overall practice and clients.

Merisis Advisors is a leading mid-market Investment banking firm with the largest team. Founded in 2010, Merisis has built a reputation for high-quality work & strong results in fundraising and M&A advisory. The company has done $3Bn in total transaction value and has practices across Fintech, Transportation, Consumer, Enterprise Tech & Services, B2B, and Healthtech. Merisis brings its banking expertise and deep understanding of these 
industries to deliver value to its clients.

After a stellar record as a full-service Investment Bank, Merisis Advisors expanded its capabilities by setting up its early-stage Investment Advisory venture ‘ValueBridge Capital’, its Venture Capital arm ‘Merisis Venture Partners Fund, and its Wealth Management advisory. The company has its offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and NCR and is a member of The Alliance of International Corporate Advisors (AICA) with representatives across 40+ countries.

Speciale Invest Expands Its Leadership Team With Vishnu Rajeev's Addition as an Investment Principal

Speciale Invest, a seed-stage VC firm specializing in deep science and enterprise technologies, has announced the appointment of Vishnu Rajeev as Investment Principal. The appointment of Vishnu strengthens Speciale Invest's investment team, bringing in a wealth of experience and expertise in the investment and startup ecosystem. With over ten years of industry experience, Vishnu has previously served as Investment Principal at Avaana Capital and as mobility and climate lead at Micelio and Axilor Ventures.

In addition, he has held board-level positions at several companies in the electric vehicle and energy sectors. He shares the strong vision of building Speciale Invest as a differentiated and specialist VC in the pre-seed/seed stage and will play a pivotal role in identifying and investing in the next generation of innovative startups in India.

In his new role, Vishnu will leverage his vast industry expertise and experience to enhance the firm's investment strategy, focusing on identifying and evaluating opportunities in the mobility, climate tech, and energy sectors. He brings a deep understanding of the dynamics of cleantech and deep tech industries to the table and will work on due diligence on startups, negotiate deals, and provide ongoing support and guidance to portfolio companies. In addition, Vishnu's experience in leading investments in companies such as The ePlane Company, ElectricPe, and RACEnergy, among others, has given him a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in the sector.

Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest, said, "At Speciale Invest, we are committed to finding the best talent to help us invest in deep science and enterprise technologies. With the appointment of Vishnu as Investment Principal, we have found a seasoned industry veteran with extensive experience in the cleantech and deep tech sectors. His expertise will be invaluable in identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in mobility, climate tech, and energy, and we are confident that he will help us build a strong portfolio that drives growth and innovation."

On the appointment, Vishnu Rajeev, said, "I am excited to join Speciale Invest, a team dedicated to investing in the next generation of deep science and enterprise technologies. Given our world's significant challenges, investing in sustainable technologies has never been more critical. I am eager to leverage my experience and network to identify and evaluate investment opportunities in the mobility, climate tech, and energy sectors."

With Vishnu on board as Investment Principal, Speciale Invest is well positioned to identify and invest in the most promising startups in India, helping to build a strong portfolio that drives growth and innovation.

About Speciale Invest

Founded in 2017 by Co-founders Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, Speciale Invest is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in founders building technologies of tomorrow. The firm backs ingenious entrepreneurs that use disruptive technologies to find innovative solutions that make an impact.

The fund's interests include Enterprise Software Products (emerging from deep tech in Cloud, Voice & Vision ML/AI, Image Analytics, AR/VR ) and Industrial Hardware Products (emerging from deep tech in Propulsion tech, Robotics, Rocket engines, Lithium tech, Micro-electronics, Optical Communication tech).

https://www.specialeinvest.com/

AiDash Appoints Sanjay Goel (Ex-Walmart & Cleartrip) as VP-Engineering

SaaS technology veteran brings over 20 years of experience operating and scaling global engineering functions

AiDash, a leading provider of satellite- and AI-powered operations, maintenance, and sustainability platforms, announced the appointment of Sanjay Goel, as its Vice President of Engineering. An accomplished leader with over 20 years of experience in engineering and innovation across startups and tech giants, including Walmart Global Tech and Cleartrip.

Prior to AiDash, Goel was the Director of Engineering at Walmart Global Tech, where he led engineering to support multiple Walmart ecommerce markets, serving millions of Walmart customers. He was previously the Vice President of Engineering at Cleartrip, a global online travel company, where he played a key role in rearchitecting services for scalability and stability while developing a people-first, tech-first culture. Goel is also an IIT Delhi alumni.

“Sanjay has unparalleled expertise in building and leading global technology teams of all sizes. His strength in growing high performance engineering organizations will ensure that AiDash continues to be world-class as we scale globally, accelerate adoption, and deliver on our innovative products.” says Rahul Saxena, co-founder and CTO of AiDash. “Sanjay’s hands-on development experience and commitment to building a great culture will be instrumental in attracting the best talent. We are always looking for innovative minds and passion for solving challenging problems.”

 

Sanjay Goel

“AiDash operates in a highly dynamic domain of climate technology and solves big challenges that have a direct impact on human lives. No other products compare with the innovative products built here,” says Goel. “It is very exciting to contribute to creating a greener, cleaner, safer planet from space.”

To strengthen and drive the continued success of its product lines, AiDash recently promoted Niharika Bhatnagar to Vice President of Product Management, overseeing development of the next generation of products. Previously, as Senior Director of Product Management, Bhatnagar introduced AiDash Intelligent Vegetation Management System (IVMS) and AiDash Disaster and Disruptions Management System (DDMS).

The company has seen tremendous growth in recent months with 3x growth year over year in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and number of customers. The company has already increased its Indian employee count 70% in the first eight months of 2022 – from 124 to 212 employees, plans to hire at least 150 more in the country in the next 12 months, and recently opened two new offices in India: a 200+ seat office at the SJR iPark in Whitefield, Bengaluru, and a 100+ seat office in the prestigious DLF Cyber City business park at Gurugram. These offices will host the growing Engineering, Data Science, Product, Design, Customer Success, GIS, and cross-functional teams. Headquartered in San Jose, California, AiDash also maintains other offices around the world.

Having raised a total of $33M in Series A and B rounds of funding, AiDash is backed by investors such as G2VP, BGV, National Grid Partners, Edison International, and Shell Ventures and is actively hiring for success.

About AiDash

AiDash is an AI-first vertical SaaS company on a mission to transform operations, maintenance, and sustainability in industries with geographically distributed assets by using satellites and AI at scale. With access to a continual, near real-time stream of critical data, utilities, energy, mining, and other core industries can make more informed decisions and build optimized long-term plans, all while reducing costs, improving reliability, and achieving sustainability goals. To learn more about how AiDash is helping core industries become more resilient, efficient, and sustainable, visit www.aidash.com.

UOLO Ropes in Ex Paytm Money Founding Member Mr. Mohit Gupta

Mr. Mohit Gupta

UOLO, an edtech platform that brings high-quality, affordable products to K-12 students via their schools, has announced the appointment of Mohit Gupta as Head of Monetization. In his capacity, Mohit will be responsible for leading business operations to make edtech simple, easy, and accessible to millions of Indian students with UOLO.

Gupta has over 15 years of leadership experience in setting up and growing businesses at scale and has a strong track record in strategy consulting and business management. He was a founding member of Paytm Money and democratized wealth management for the masses. Gupta has also been associated with Hindustan Times, Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo, Deloitte Consulting, and multiple Fortune 500 organizations during his stint at Essex. At Uolo, he will play an important role in the company’s growth by strengthening its revenues without any sales force.

Welcoming Mr. Gupta onboard, Mr. Pallav Pandey, Co-founder and CEO of UOLO, said, “Edtech sales in India are unsustainable given how gullible parents are lured into expensive purchases through loan schemes under a high-pressure sales environment. Our vision at Uolo is to monetize through affordable programs without needing a salesman. Mohit’s deep expertise in building pure digital businesses at Paytm, HindustanTimes, and extensive consulting background makes him an ideal choice for heading Monetization at Uolo.

Commenting on joining UOLO as Head of Monetization, Mr. Gupta said, “I am excited to join UOLO in our mission to democratize the edtech sector with a focus on quality, affordability, and accessibility. The current market offerings are not suitable for more than 85% of the students who are from budget or affordable private schools. We are designing mobile first solutions in partnership with the schools and are on track to build a better India by educating and empowering 20 million students over the next few years.”

About Uolo

Uolo, established in September 2020, brings high-quality yet low-cost edtech offerings to K-12 students in India via their schools. Uolo offers schools, for free, a state-of-the-art mobile app for school-parent communication. Using this app, schools can offer their students high-quality education programs at affordable prices during the after-school hours. As of date, Uolo works with 5,500+ schools and 2.2 million students across the country.

Simpl Appoints Robin as Principal Data Scientist

Simpl, the market leader in 1-tap checkout, today announced the appointment of Robin as Principal Data Scientist. Robin has served as a Lead Scientist - Analytics Science in his previous role at FICO USA.

His new role at Simpl includes creating high-impact Data Science and anti-fraud projects in close coordination with other stakeholders. He will be working as a technical consultant to product managers from different departments.

Robin comes with over 14 years of robust experience in building AI solutions for a range of industries. During his time at FICO, he was instrumental in developing the FICO Cognitive Analytics toolkit using advanced machine learning algorithms. Robin’s areas of expertise include developing anti-fraud solutions for insurance claims, credit cards, and other applications. He has also worked on Clinical Decision Support and Identity Proofing projects.

Commenting on the key appointment, Nitya Sharma, CEO & Co-Founder – Simpl, said, "In the fintech payments industry it is imperative to continuously innovate by deploying new-age technologies. We believe that AI, ML, IoT, blockchain technology, data analytics and other technologies will help us in delivering powerful products and deliver better user experience to customers. And having seasoned technologists will help us to fast track our product development. In this regard, we are excited to on-board Robin as Principal Data Scientist. He will be instrumental in spearheading anti-fraud initiatives at Simpl."

Robin, Principal Data Scientist– Simpl, stated -

I’m thrilled to be a part of Simpl’s journey in innovating the digital payments ecosystem and ensuring consumer data protection. I look forward to design and develop a suit of solutions utilizing advanced machine learning algorithms at Simpl and contribute towards Simpl’s commitment of making payment experience simple, safe, and secure for customers.

Simpl will continue to seek out the best and brightest in the industry in hiring, promotion, and business practices. Simpl is committed to the simplification and democratization of digital transformation in the payments space in India.

Co-founded in 2015 by Nitya Sharma, Simpl is India’s fastest-growing Buy Now, Pay Later platform meant to make payments invisible and money intelligent. Simpl is on a mission to empower merchants to build trusted relationships with customers, one transaction at a time. With more than 10,000 available merchants and 25 million-plus users pan-India, Simpl envisions creating an inclusive digital payments experience for India that empowers and fosters trust between merchants and their customers.

Simpl is the leading Pay-Later platform in India, providing a full-stack solution for e-commerce conversion. It enables merchants to give customers 1-tap  checkout, buyer protection and a pay-later facility to allow them to feel safe and trusted when shopping online. Through Simpl, merchants can provide consumers with an easy, safe and intuitive user experience.

CropIn Announces Three New Executive Leadership Appointments

To lead its new phase of growth and global expansion with a mission of accelerating progress in agri-ecosystem everyday

• Industry veteran Mohit Pande joins as Chief Business Officer to spearhead business expansion across international markets
• Vijay Nelson takes charge as Chief Product Officer to accelerate product innovation and strengthen Cropin’s agri-ecosystem Deep Tech offerings for global markets
• Sujit Janardanan has been named Chief Marketing Officer with a mission to spur market penetration across growth regions

Cropin, a leading global ag-ecosystem intelligence provider, today announced the appointment of three executive leaders in a move to strengthen its leadership team and support the company’s continued growth and execution of its strategic priorities. Mohit Pande joins Cropin as Chief Business Officer, Vijay Nelson as Chief Product Officer, and Sujit Janardanan as Chief Marketing Officer.

After building a successful business model and spearheading an all new ‘Ag-intelligence’ movement for ecosystem players worldwide for over a decade, Cropin is accelerating its journey of building a deep tech organization that is focused on solving some of the toughest challenges and biggest opportunities faced by the agri-ecosystem. The restructuring exercise encompasses redefining the organizational culture, strengthening values, and introducing a host of people-friendly initiatives as the company is expanding its operations across global markets.

Mohit Pande has been named Chief Business Officer. Mohit will be responsible for accelerating Cropin's business operations across global markets. With a customer base spanning 56 countries, Cropin is on an aggressive path to expand its international presence and set-up offices in priority markets across North America, LATAM, Europe, South-East Asia, and the Africa region - apart from India. With 25 years of experience in driving business operations for technology giants such as Google and Microsoft, Mohit was most recently Co-Founder of Linear Squared (now acquired by Algonomy) and previously Country Manager, India for Google Cloud. He will work with Cropin CEO Krishna Kumar and COO Kunal Prasad to spearhead the company’s aggressive business growth globally.

Vijay Nelson has been appointed Chief Product Officer. Vijay will lead product development and platform innovations at Cropin. He will focus on streamlining existing product offerings and build the next generation of Ag-intelligence solutions, tailored for different customer segments. He will also help the company to strengthen its Deep Tech product suite and accelerate the convergence of AI, ML, data science, satellite imagery, and remote sensing to reimagine a truly futuristic tech-enabled agri ecosystem worldwide. Vijay has nearly 20 years of experience as a product leader in leading technology organizations such as Microsoft, Amazon, eMids and Honeywell. His most recent role was at Microsoft where he was the Principal Group Product Manager, heading the Microsoft Outlook products in India.

Sujit Janardanan has been named Chief Marketing Officer. Sujit will focus on enhancing Cropin's brand positioning as the most admired Deep Tech company in the agtech space and spearhead market penetration across growth regions. He will also focus on rebuilding and growing the company’s marketing organization. Sujit has over 2 decades of experience in driving global and regional marketing at technology leaders such as Google, AWS, NTT (Netmagic) and McAfee among many others. Prior to joining Cropin, he was Head of Marketing, India for Google Cloud.

Commenting on the appointments, Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cropin said “I am delighted to welcome Mohit, Vijay and Sujit to the Cropin leadership team. Cropin is gearing up for the next phase of growth and international expansion as we seek to transform the agri ecosystem worldwide. We take great pride in the creation of a global Agtech category while building Cropin since 2010. There has been significant traction for our solutions in the past few years. We strongly believe that this is the right time for us to embark on a new journey to scale our ‘built in India’ Intelligent Ag Cloud platform across global markets. The new appointments will be invaluable additions to our senior management team on this exciting journey.”

About Cropin

Founded in 2010, Cropin is a pioneer in the Agtech space building the first global Intelligent Ag Cloud. Cropin's platform enables various stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem to leverage digitization and AI at scale to make decisions that increase efficiency, scale productivity, and strengthen sustainability. Cropin has worked with 250+ customers and has digitized 16 million acres of farmland, improving the livelihoods of more than 7 million farmers. It has built the world's largest farming data insights over a decade, spearheading a global ‘Ag-intelligence’ movement with a knowledge graph of 488 crops, 10000 crop varieties in 56 countries. With its AI/ML platform tailor-made for the agriculture ecosystem, Cropin has computed 0.2 billion acres of farmland in 12 countries, covering 24 major commodities.

Simpl Appoints Vivek Pandey as VP-Engineering to Augment the Vertical

Simpl, the market leader in 1-tap checkout, today announced the appointment of Vivek Pandey as Vice President – Engineering. In his previous role, Vivek served as Staff Software Engineer at Google India.

Vivek has more than 15 years of robust experience in computer science engineering. He also Co-founded QGraph – a marketing automation platform offering android, iOS and web push in 2014, which was eventually sold to Taipei-based Appier. He has completed B. Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur, followed by Masters in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and later an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

Commenting on the executive appointment, Simpl’s CEO & Co-Founder Nitya Sharma said, “We are excited to welcome Vivek Pandey as VP-Engineering. A strong engineering team is crucial as we place technology at the core of our business reimagining the payments side in fintech with transformative products. Vivek will be instrumental in augmenting our engineering team. We believe a strong technology and engineering vertical will help scale up the business and ensure continued operational excellence.”

Vivek Pandey, Vice President, Engineering – Simpl, stated, “In this journey towards revolutionizing digital payments in India, it’s exciting to join Simpl. I look forward to building resilient, dynamic technology systems while contributing towards achieving Simpl’s commitment to simplify and democratize the digital payments landscape in India.”

Simpl, the country’s leading 1-tap checkout network, plans to heavily expand its engineering team and is seeking to hire from top-tier colleges, pan-India. And as part of its commitment to gender diversity, Simpl is proactively striving to balance the male-female ratio in its engineering department. With women leaders heading key functions such as the Partner Success and Data Science & Engineering teams, the company is aiming to establish a gender-balanced workplace in the coming years.

About Simpl

Co-founded in 2015 by Nitya Sharma, Simpl is India’s fastest-growing Buy Now, Pay Later platform meant to make payments invisible and money intelligent. Simpl is on a mission to empower merchants to build trusted relationships with customers, one transaction at a time. With more than 10,000 available merchants and 7 million-plus users pan-India, Simpl envisions creating an inclusive digital payments experience for India that empowers and fosters trust between merchants and their customers.

Simpl is the leading Pay-Later platform in India, providing a full-stack solution for e-commerce conversion. It enables merchants to give customers 1-tap checkout, buyer protection and a pay-later facility to allow them to feel safe and trusted when shopping online. Through Simpl, merchants can provide consumers with an easy, safe and intuitive user experience.

Hero MotoCorp Appoints Digitization and Technology Expert to Accelerate Digital Transformation

Appoints Reema Jain as New Chief Information & Digital Officer

Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, has further strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of digitization and technology expert, Reema Jain.

Ms. Jain, with nearly two decades of world-class technology and leadership experience, has joined Hero MotoCorp on 1 March 2022 as the new Chief Information & Digital Officer to lead the technology driven business transformation. She will further strengthen the company's initiatives such as IT-related infrastructure, strategic planning, aligning digital strategies including the usage of new-age technologies.

Ms. Jain will directly report to Dr. Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO, Hero MotoCorp.

Mike Clarke, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer – Hero MotoCorp, said, “In the relentless pursuit of our vision - 'Be the Future of Mobility', we have been embracing new technologies to bring greater agility into our working practices. As we are in the midst of a transformation, this newly created position marks an important milestone in our digital journey. Reema’s addition to the team will help us lead the digital acceleration and leverage technology to augment our innovation ecosystem together with our customers and partners."

Reema Jain is a well-known name in the technology industry and was recently named among top 100 global CDOs across industries. Jain most recently served as Chief Digital Officer at Vodafone India.

Prior to that, Ms. Jain was associated with global corporations such as Unilever and GE in leadership roles, where she was responsible for building agile, robust, scalable and resilient technology platforms, processes, and IT Solutions.

Hero MotoCorp recently elevated Ranjivjit Singh – who has been heading Marketing - to the newly constituted role of Chief Growth Officer, with an objective to leverage the emerging opportunities in the post-pandemic world, by bringing more synergies between the key customer-facing functions of Marketing and Sales & After-Sales.

India Accelerator On Boards New Principal Partners

(Left to Right) Romil Kapadia, Satyabrata Das, Harish Menon

Satyabrata Das, Harish Menon and Romil Kapadia have been onboarded as principal partners to strengthen India Accelerator’s global operations and investment expertise.

India Accelerator, India’s only GAN partnered accelerator has recently announced the appointment of three new principal partners – Satyabrata Das, Harish Menon and Romil Kapadia as part of iAngels network, to accelerate the company’s expansion strategy and strengthen global operations. The partnership’s emphasis is on startup identification, angel network expansion, mentoring and global business expansion.

Satyabrata Das is a recognized Angel Investor and joins India Accelerator with over 25 years of experience at scaling multiple organizations across India and Kenya. Previously the Finance Director of one of Kenya’s largest multinational companies, Mr Das has mentored over 20 growing startups across the globe. With his domain expertise and passion for building transformative companies, India Accelerator envisions expanding its geographical footprint and leading strategic partnerships across the globe.

Harish Menon is a respected Chartered Accountant and has over 20 years of experience in financial markets and investment consultation. Registered with SEBI as an Investment Adviser, Mr Menon has co-founded multiple organizations and has invested in over 20 nascent startups in the previous year alone. With his investment acumen and expertise, India Accelerator aspires to scout and school the most investible and promising startups.

Romil Kapadia has a rich experience of over 15 years in asset management and an extensive network of investor relationships. Currently serving as the Managing Partner at Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management, Romil has been awarded the ‘40 Under Forty 2022’ title by Equalifi and Edelweiss. Under his strong leadership and expertise, India Accelerator endeavours to empower startups in fundraising and business development.

Delighted with the appointment of such strong leaders, Mona Singh, CoFounder, India Accelerator commented -

I am overjoyed to welcome Satya, Harish and Romil to the IA team as principal partners. With their business acumen, leadership skills and vast experience, we hope to vault India’s startup economy to unprecedented heights. Under their leadership and enlightenment, we are also looking forward to scaling our angel network and strengthening our global expansion plans.

Being India’s only GAN partnered mentorship-driven accelerator, India Accelerator has empowered over 100 startups to grow into successful ventures. A leading seed-stage accelerator in India, the company is emboldening startups to build innovative solutions, scale new heights and generate employment in India. The company has also been recently awarded the ‘Best Accelerator of India’ at National Startup Awards 2021 by Startup India.

M C Agrawal of SAIL Appointed As Chairman of B2B E-Commerce Firm mjunction

Mr Mahesh Chand Agrawal, Executive Director (Sales & International Trade Division) of SAIL, has been appointed Chairman of mjunction services limited, India’s largest B2B e-commerce company. He takes the mantle from outgoing Chairman Mr Rajiv Mukerji of Tata Steel.

Mr Agrawal holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Malviya National Institute of Technology (formerly Malviya Regional Engineering College) in Jaipur.

He has held several key positions in SAIL over the last several years and has been a Director with mjunction for the last one year.

On his appointment, Mr Agrawal said, “mjunction is on a sustained growth path, and I look forward to supporting and leading this dynamic organisation which is one of the pioneers in B2B e-commerce in India today.”

mjunction services limited is a 50:50 joint venture of SAIL and Tata Steel. Founded in February 2001, it is today not only India’s largest B2B e-commerce company (having e-transacted worth over Rs 10,53,663 crore till FY21), but is a leading e-marketplace for steel in the world. Business volume of the company in terms of transaction value has soared from Rs 94.35 crore in FY02 to Rs 1,39,824 crore in FY21.

mjunction has been one of the frontrunners in the B2B e-commerce space in India. It has service offerings spanning the entire B2B e-commerce spectrum and covers e-sales, e-sourcing, e-procurement, e-finance and loyalty solutions. It provides a transparent and efficient electronic marketplace where buyers and sellers of diverse goods and services can transact in a model that delivers value to both parties in an efficient and transparent manner.

Broadly, mjunction has two service categories: e-selling, that includes both forward and reverse auctions; and e-procurement. Some of the key categories it has experience and expertise in, include foodgrains, tea, pulses & oilseeds, telecom spectrum, coal, media rights for cricket, oil & gas fields, industrial plots, land, mining, iron ore, idle assets and scrap.

mjunction has evolved platforms for steel, coal, idle assets, agro commodities and minerals – they are transactional platforms which facilitate both sides of the supply chain. In 2020, it launched an electronic marketplace for tea in Assam. And in 2021, it launched its second e-marketplace for non-moving spares, called mjValueMart.

mjunction’s growth has not only been in terms of transactional value, revenue and profits. In the last two decades, it has established a national footprint with presence in more than 40 locations all over the country, and is headquartered in the city of Kolkata. Starting out with a team of less than six people at inception, today more than 900 people from different professional and academic backgrounds are working on growing the company at a scorching pace. Internationally, it has a business footprint in Australia, Singapore, UK and the United Arab Emirates. mjunction also has its own offices in UAE and UK.

mjunction abides by its guiding principles of Customer Focus, Innovation, Excellence and Integrity in all its business processes and with regard to all its internal and external stakeholders. As of now we have 3 lakh entities transacting on our various platforms.

mjunction is ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001:2013 certified and is appraised at CMMI Level 5. It won the “Best eCommerce Company of the Year” Award in the “ET NOW Making of Developed India Awards” 2018.

mjunction is a socially conscious organisation, imparting basic computer and communication training to the underprivileged through its trust ejunction, not only making them employable, but also creating employment opportunities for them. Since 2007, it has touched over 50,000 lives, based largely on the employee volunteering model, and has created more than 15,000 employment opportunities.

https://www.mjunction.in/

Signzy Strengthens Leadership Team, Appoints Ashok Kumar Pillai As Global Delivery Head

The IT veteran joins Signzy to spearhead its global expansion

Signzy, India’s leading fintech today announced the appointment of Ashok Kumar Pillai as its Global Delivery Head. Ashok, who is an IT veteran, joins Signzy to spearhead its global expansion. Leveraging his 25-plus years of banking and payments industry expertise, Ashok will oversee and lead Signzy’s delivery innovation to provide efficient and superlative customer services in his current role. Ashok will be based out of Pune and his appointment is effective immediately.

Prior to joining Signzy, Ashok served as Client Partner and Head of Pune Center at Altimetrik, a US-based business and IT transformation company. He led Sales, Client engagement and Pune center operations for the firm. Before that most of his experience has been in the Banking & Payments products domain covering many large projects for leading global financial organizations. Ashok comes with deep experience in creating and managing delivery teams spread across geographies in Service Delivery, with P&L ownership. At Signzy, he will primarily be responsible to monitor and maintain Customer Value Proposition as a key index at organization level. He will also provide leadership guidance to project and customer support teams. 

Ashok Kumar Pillai, Global Delivery Head, Signzy commenting on his appointment stated, “These are challenging yet exciting times for the entire banking and financial services industry. The current scenario has also presented unprecedented opportunities to fasten digital transformation in the sector. Signzy, with its world-class digital solutions is aptly geared to tap into these opportunities and further intensify its growth. The startup has charted an unparalleled success story in a short span.  I hope to further unleash its potential and transform it into a globally scalable delivery organization through my efforts. I am equally excited to work with the young founders to accelerate the next level of growth for Signzy.”

Ankit Ratan, cofounder of Signzy says, “Ashok brings proven leadership and a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise from his 25-plus years in industry. His appointment will prove invaluable to Signzy as we continue to grow business with a focus on helping our customers stay ahead and relevant in this digital age and ready to turn Signzy into a global brand catering to banking and financial institutions across the world. I am extremely delighted that Signzy’s efforts will now be steered by Ashok’s experience and able leadership.”

Dell Technologies Names Rola Dagher Global Channel Chief

Dell Technologies has announced Rola Dagher as its new global channel chief, reporting into Bill Scannell, Dell Technologies president, global sales and customer operations.

Dagher will lead Dell Technologies’ global partner strategy, vision, enablement, program design and experience. She begins her new role Sept. 7.

Dagher returns to Dell after three years as president of Cisco Systems Canada. Prior to Cisco, Dagher held sales and leadership roles in Dell’s Enterprise segment and Infrastructure Solutions Group. Prior to that, Dagher helped lead the channel for Bell Canada for 13 years. She has a strong track record of removing partner complexity and delivering simplicity to customers.

“Dell’s commitment to the channel is unwavering, and with Rola assuming the Global Channel Chief role we’re poised to continue the winning streak we’ve been on since the formation of Dell Technologies,” said Bill Scannell. “Rola is passionate about partners, and we’re excited to have her at the helm of a channel business that has grown to deliver $52B in orders revenue annually while driving greater clarity and predictability of engagement for our partners.”

“Partners are the foundation of our success today and tomorrow, and I’m inspired by the passion and drive of Dell’s channel team,” Dagher said. “My commitment is to listen, learn and lead through our partners to deliver best-in-class transformational solutions and a digital-first customer experience. I’m looking forward to building upon our deep relationships with partners and leading this incredible organisation to further success.”

Tian Beng Ng, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Channel, Asia Pacific & Japan said, “Naming a passionate partner advocate like Rola Dagher as channel chief, and more closely aligning our channel organisation and sales teams really brings to life the incredible opportunity of our global size and scale. These moves prepare us well for the future and show that we’re committed to supporting partners in every region with consistency and predictability. Dell Technologies is better positioned than ever before to win, and our partners know they can count on us to help them navigate an ever-changing world.”

Dagher succeeds Joyce Mullen, who after a 21-year career at Dell, announced her departure in July.

The Dell Technologies Partner Program is built to be simple, predictable and profitable. Partners have asked for even better predictability of engagement. To do that, Dell is aligning the channel with core sales teams in each region.

Channel sales are now aligned to Dell’s North America and International sales leaders, John Byrne and Aongus Hegarty. As part of this, Dell is introducing a new International Channel Lead, Diego Majdalani, who will report into Hegarty. Majdalani has led sales for the Latin American region for the past seven years and brings deep partner expertise and knowledge to the role.

• Regional channel leads Alvaro Camarena, Anwar Dahab, Tian Beng Ng and Frank Wu will continue in their current roles for LatAm, EMEA, APJ and Greater China respectively, reporting into Majdalani, with tight alignment to Dagher and team.


• North America channel lead Gregg Ambulos will continue in his role, and report into John Byrne.

Denise Millard will continue her role leading Global Alliances, reporting to Bill Scannell. The Global Alliances and Channel teams will continue to work together to ensure synergies across all our partners for a seamless partner experience.

This structure allows Dell to better support partners within the regions and promotes operational consistency and predictability with core sales teams, while maintaining a strong global presence. Each of these leaders has been a partner advocate for many years and is committed to partners’ success. 

FarmERP Gears Up for the Future as Top Execs from Cognizant and SAP Join Them

FarmERP’s main focus lies in rigorous technology-intensive transformation of agriculture and agribusinesses, through latest advancements including Internet of Agricultural Things, AI, Blockchain and Machine Learning. To enable revolutionary ease within the management system, FarmERP welcomed Mr. Abhijeet Dange and Mr. Vikram Metkari on board.

The team at FarmERP recently announced the appointment of Mr. Abhijeet Dange as the Associate Vice President for Delivery at the organization. With vast experience in banking and financial services, learning, and talent development for over 22 years while working for organisations like Cognizant and Silverline, he has immense knowledge about handling large offshore customer engagements.

On his appointment, Mr. Dange quoted, “With the knowledge I possess, I aim to help in maintaining FarmERP’s competitive advantage by effectively aiding the growth of agribusinesses through cutting edge technology platforms.”

Mr. Sanjay Borkar, the CEO of the Indian-grown 2001 brand believes that, apart from being a strong leader with excellent people management skills, with his expertise in streamlining digital IT transformations, Mr. Abhijeet will play a crucial role in uncomplicating complex product management for FarmERP.

The team also welcomed on board Mr. Vikram Metkari as the Head of Sales and Marketing, who shares the same passion that the co-founders of the organisation do, for transforming the inner workings of agriculture through the use of tech platforms. Mr. Metkari, an MBA and BE professional with rich work experience in marketing, sales, and business strategy, is a self-motivated and confident leader. He is not only a keen planner and strategist, but also an articulate communicator offering high- calibre presentations, negotiations, and analytical skills.

Mr. Santosh Shinde, the COO of FarmERP believes that Mr. Metkari’s extensive experience of working for various companies- both smaller organizations and world leaders like SAP and Vodafone in the IT & Telecom domain will enable him to guide, innovate, build, and provide value to agribusiness' customers by strengthening FarmERP's existing leadership in the domain.

With the valuable addition of both these members to the team at FarmERP, striving to make a difference and create an impact in these testing times, and the immense experience and culmination of expertise that they bring to the table, the management is now stronger than ever.

ABOUT FARMERP : 

FarmERP is a leading smart agriculture management ERP technology platform. It was incepted as a part of Shivrai Technologies more than a decade ago and is currently deployed in 25 countries, assisting a variety of agribusinesses.

FarmERP is a pioneered effort by engineers, classmates, and now partners, Mr. Sanjay Borkar and Mr. Santosh Shinde. Both coming from an agricultural background, they were and are well aware of the toils and troubles that the agricultural sector faces on a daily basis. They turned to technology as a helping hand and as a partner. Due to the connection, both personal and professional that they have towards the agricultural sector, it makes each individual work that much harder towards achieving the long-term goals they stand for. Aiming at the revolutionizing of the practices the agriculture sector follows as of date, FarmERP strives to make considerable progress in the agri-sectors they work with, while actively trying to incorporate their offerings with additional sectors as well, since they are a platform which can accommodate the personality of numerous agribusinesses.

Home Credit India announces the appointment of Sameer Katdare as Chief Risk Officer

Home Credit India (HCIN), a local arm of the international consumer finance provider with operations spanning over Europe and Asia, today announced the appointment of Sameer Katdare as Chief Risk Officer. Sameer brings with him a rich experience of more than 20 years in the Retail Banking sector across America, South Asia, and ASEAN. 

In his current role, Sameer is responsible for overall Risk Management framework and governance, oversight of Collection Operations and further strengthening of risk processes and capabilities. Prior to this, Sameer was with Standard Chartered Bank for 9 years in Mumbai and Singapore, He was the Regional Head for Credit Risk Management for South Asia and ASEAN. Sameer has also been associated with CapitalOne in its US Card and Small Business Banking units.  

On his appointment, Mr. Sameer Katdare said; “The NBFC sector is in the middle of a fundamental transformation, driven by culture of risk identification, challenge and mitigation, new client expectations, innovation and growth. Home Credit India is well-established with rich Global experience in consumer lending space enabled by Risk and Technology.   The company is brimming with great opportunities to serve its customers with best-in-class financing options. I look forward to joining such a dynamic organization and be part of Risk transformation journey” 

Welcoming Sameer on-board, Mr. Ondrej Kubik, Chief Executive Officer, Home Credit India said; “I am happy that Sameer has joined our leadership team. The changing dynamics of the industry makes the role of Chief Risk Officer vital for the functioning of any organization. Sameer, with his extensive experience in risk mitigation, will prove to be a tremendous asset for us, as his vision would advance our risk management portfolio. I welcome Sameer and look forward to working with him.”

Home Credit India serves over 11.3 million customers with various flexible loan options. Being a leader in the financing business of sub Rs 10,000 category, the company provides a plethora of hassle-free financing options from a strong network of around 31,500 points-of-sale (PoS) present over 350 cities. The company is committed to drive credit penetration and broaden financial inclusion through responsible lending in the country.

About Home Credit India:

Home Credit India Finance Pvt. Ltd. is a local arm of the international consumer finance provider with operations spanning over Europe and Asia and committed to drive financial inclusion in India. The company is committed to drive credit penetration and financial inclusion by offering wide financial solutions that are simple, transparent and accessible to all. Leading in sub Rs.10,000 category, Home Credit India has an employee base of close to 14,000 and has been consistently expanding operations since its entry in 2012, with its operations spread over 350 cities across 22 States in India. The company has a strong network of around 31,500 points-of-sale (PoS) and is growing with a customer base of over 11.3 million customers, driven by Pan-India expansion across major markets, a range of diversified and innovative products backed by superior customer experience. 

CASHe Appoints Yogi Sadana as Interim CEO

CASHe,India’s leading Fin-Tech enabled app only lending platform to salaried millennials today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Yogi Sadana as interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Yogi Sadana will be succeeding the outgoing CEO, Ketan Patel who left the company to pursue other opportunities.Besides managing the role of the CEO, Yogi will continue to serve as the CFO of the company, a title he has held since joining the company in 2017.  Over the years, Yogi has played a stellar role in the company’s business, capital raising and financial strategy.  Yogi Sadana, a Chartered Accountant brings in over 15 years of rich finance, strategy, business experience and has worked in leadership positions with large multinational organizations in the past.  

“Yogi is the right person to lead CASHe into the future, given his experience and background in business and finance and his proven ability to drive results,” said V. Raman Kumar, Founder, Chairman, CASHe. “We are on a positive growth trajectory at CASHe and are very well-positioned to continue building on our strong performance in the previous financial year. I am excited to work closely with Yogi to ensure a seamless transition and charter CASHe on to its next phase of growth and market leadership. The entire CASHe Board is committed in its support to Yogi as he takes over the reins from Ketan Patel in these exciting yet challenging times”, he added. 

“I am truly honoured to lead our extraordinary company as CASHe’s interim chief executive officer,” said Yogi Sadana. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with our young team and under the able guidance of our Chairman, Raman Kumar and the board of directors. Together, we will provide exceptional financial products to our customers backed by our cutting-edge technology and customer service. CASHe will continue to be a great place to work for all our talented employees”.

About CASHe

Fin-Tech enabled app-only lending platform to salaried millennials. CASHe provides immediate short-term personal loans to young professionals based on their social profile, merit and earning potential using its proprietary algorithm-based machine learning platform. 

In April 2016, Aeries Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd, launched its innovative technology-driven lending platform for the young, urban millennials. CASHe provides almost instantaneous loans on-demand. Its user-friendly digital interface enables faster loan application process and quicker loan disbursals. CASHe provides hassle-free loans with its app enabled documentation and loan disbursal/repayment process. Powered by its industry-first algorithm driven credit scoring platform, Social Loan Quotient (SLQ), CASHe quickly determines a user’s credit worthiness by using multiple unique data points to arrive at a distinct credit profile of the customer. CASHe is completely automated and requires no personal intervention and no physical documentation. The average time taken for a loan to be disbursed is about 8 minutes, subject to proper submission of all documents. CASHe’s target audience is young working professionals in the age group of 23-35 years. CASHe offers loans from Rs 9,000 to Rs 3,00,000 payable over 2 months to 1 year. Visit www.cashe.co.in for more information.

US-based UserTesting Names GB Kumar Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific

UserTesting continues its international expansion by adding top executive sales leadership to support customers and drive the adoption of Human Insights in Asia 

UserTesting, a leading provider of on-demand human insights, today announced the appointment of GB Kumar as the company’s first Asia Pacific regional Vice President of Sales. UserTesting has nearly 50 subscription customers in Asia Pacific with leading brands including Agoda, Canva, Destination NSW, Energy Australia, Meitu Inc., Photo Infotech Inc., and Yun Yun. These companies leverage the UserTesting® Human Insight Platform to get fast feedback on their products, messaging, and experiences, in a cost effective-way – from consumers in their markets, or in other countries–to build empathy for their end-users so they can make more informed business decisions. 

According to research by eMarketer, six of the top 10 fastest-growing ecommerce countries in 2019 hail from the Asia Pacific region, led by India and the Philippines at more than 30 percent growth and rounded out by China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and South Korea. Despite this, many Asia Pacific countries have yet to differentiate on customer experience as a strategy. At Forrester’s 2017 CX Forum in Singapore, analyst Fred Giron referenced a finding from 311 marketing decision-makers in Asia Pacific–citing 72 percent viewed customer experience as an important priority, yet only 23 percent had a customer experience strategy in place. 

“Asia Pacific countries are going through significant changes in buyer behaviour and trade patterns, which needs to be clearly understood for companies to sustain a competitive edge and grow their business,” said GB Kumar. “UserTesting can help these companies gain empathy for their customers by delivering deep and actionable insights–and these customer insights will help them regain the business momentum to accelerate out of the crisis.” 

An accomplished business and sales leader with more than 20 years of experience, Kumar brings extensive experience leading teams across Asia Pacific, India, and the Middle East. Kumar most recently served as Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, and General Manager of India Operations at Prysm Inc, a leading display and visual collaboration solutions provider. Prior to Prysm, Kumar held multiple geo leadership roles at Intel, Tech Mahindra, and Cisco. 

“We are very excited to have GB join us to lead our expansion into Asia. He brings a proven track record of being able to develop and scale sales organizations for some of the world’s top technology companies, and we look forward to having him help us continue to expand our international footprint,” said Andy MacMillan, CEO of UserTesting. 

UserTesting will be adding new career opportunities in Asia Pacific. To inquire, please visit the careers page. UserTesting is a Forbes’ Best Companies to Work for recipient 2019 and an Inc. 

Magazine’s Best Places to Work 2019 & 2020. UserTesting is also ranked #1 user research platform by G2, a leading peer-to-peer review website. 

About UserTesting

UserTesting enables every organization to deliver the best customer experience powered by human insight. With UserTesting’s on-demand Human Insight Platform, companies across industries make accurate customer-first decisions at every level, at the speed business demands. With UserTesting, product teams, marketers, digital, and customer experience executives, designers and UX researchers confidently and quickly create the right experiences for all target audiences, increasing brand loyalty and revenue. UserTesting has more than 1,500 subscription customers, including more than half of the world’s top brands, and has delivered human insights to over 35,000 companies to-date. UserTesting is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Edtech Superapp Ken42 appoints startup evangelist Sasi Kumar Sundararajan as Advisor

Sasi joins the edtech company after having held senior leadership roles at Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PwC 

Edtech Superapp Platform Ken42 has announced the appointment of Sasi Kumar Sundararajan as their Advisor. Sasi will be based out of Ken42’s Bangalore office. 

Sasi joins Ken42 with over 23 years of experience in the industry. His extensive experience with PwC, Deloitte and EY as Practice Leader cover Public, Govt. and Private sector consulting in Growth, Restructuring, Investments, Technology and Capacity Building across several sectors in India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Middle-East and GCC. 

In recent years Sasi has also been a guide, mentor and advisor to Startups, Incubators, Accelerators, PE Funds and Universities in the areas like Future of Work, Industry 4.0, Big Data, Digital, Disruption, Startups, Mid-markets, Growth, Sharing Economy and Circular Economy. 

Talking about Sasi joining the team, Ganesh Raju, Founder and CEO, Ken42 said “Sasi’s extensive experience as a growth enabler for startups and ample knowledge about the startup ecosystem, makes him the ideal fit to lead the Ken42 team towards innovation, efficiency and improvement. It’s a privilege to have him on board and we are ecstatic to have him be a part of Ken42’s journey into cultivating a Superapp Edtech Platform for India’s vast education ecosystem.” 

Sasi has completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, went on to study Management from esteemed Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and Masters in Labour Law & Labour Welfare from Symbiosis Law College, Pune. An engineering and management professional by education and a successful career in big 4 consultancy prepared him for entrepreneurship. In 2017, Sasi became the Founder and Director of Fungised Solutions Pvt. Ltd. a start-up that works in the areas of FoodTech, Robotics, Automation and IoT. 

On his new role at Ken42, Sasi Kumar Sundararajan said “During the lockdown, the edtech industry has boomed, finally getting the limelight it has been vying for all these years. In these testing times, Ken42 has outshined the market tremendously and is aiming to become the one- stop-shop solution for education and all its stakeholders, which is no mean feat. I am excited to join the Superapp in the making and aid in its growth and success to democratize education across the country.” 

Ken 42 is a complete education ecosystem that revolutionizes how administrators manage their institutions, faculty imparts learning, and how students gain academic and real-world knowledge and skills. Designed to support students at every stage of their crucial learning years, from Class 

6 through 12 in its offering for schools, and from standard 12 through higher education and placements, Ken 42 is strongly differentiated from other learning management platforms. 

Conceptualized by serial entrepreneur Ganesh Raju in October 2019, Ken 42 also enables online classroom and exams, certificate courses from universities around the world, and opportunities for personal growth in the form of interview preparation, public speaking and professional skills. 

Backed by Turbostart a bi-yearly program for early-stage startups that aspire to be part of a unified and encouraging startup ecosystem, Ken 42 occupies a unique position as mentors to the startup ecosystem with a focus on ed-tech. It boasts a series of strategic alliances as well as long- standing relationships with premier educational institutions and governmental organizations, enabling it to create a solution that is not just cutting edge with unmatched user experience but closely aligned to educational policy and change. 

With its one-of-a-kind integrated platform, Ken 42 is set to disrupt both universities and the K12 edtech industry by ensuring maximum student success, without the need of managing multiple platforms. 

Singapore-based AI Firm ADVANCE.AI Appoints Darshan Shah As India Managing Director

Appointment comes as Singapore-headquartered AI firm accelerates growth with offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore

ADVANCE.AI, a Singapore-headquartered AI and big data company helping to solve digital transformation, fraud prevention, and process automation for enterprise clients, has appointed Darshan Shah as its India Managing Director. Shah brings with him over 20 years’ experience in credit scoring and underwriting, AI-based digital customer onboarding, and digital lending. His most recent role was as Chief Business Officer at Trusting Social.

Before that, Shah held top leadership positions at credit bureaus Experian, Transunion, and Equifax in India and Canada. Prior to joining ADVANCE.AI full time, he served on its advisory board as Chief Advisor. ADVANCE.AI expanded to India last year and has since opened a third office in Mumbai as it seeks to accelerate digital capabilities and partnerships with India’s banks, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector.

Darshan Shah, Managing Director for India at ADVANCE.AI, said: “I’m delighted to join ADVANCE.AI to help accelerate our growth in India. Our core mission remains unchanged from when we opened our first office here last year, which is to bring our technology leadership and local market expertise to help innovate and accelerate the digital onboarding, risk, and credit underwriting capabilities of India’s BFSI sector. This is more important than ever in the current COVID landscape.”

ADVANCE.AI partners over 100 enterprises in India including CASHe, a leading app-based digital lending platform, Cashfree, a Bangalore-based payment and technology company, and Faircent, India’s largest peer-to-peer lending platform. ADVANCE.AI’s recent consumer consented data partnership with credit bureau Equifax will also empower Indian businesses to better manage customer acquisition, credit, and fraud and portfolio risk.

ADVANCE.AI has grown rapidly across six Asian markets in the past year, achieving 350 per cent year-on-year growth in API calls. The company’s products cover three major areas: artificial intelligence (digital identity verification for KYC, intelligent process automation, chatbots), risk management (anti-fraud prevention, alternative credit scoring), and digital lending solutions. 

About ADVANCE.AI

ADVANCE.AI is a leading AI and big data company in Asia, helping to solve digital transformation, fraud prevention and process automation for enterprise clients. Started in 2016, the Singapore-headquartered company is a leader in Artificial Intelligence, risk management and digital lending solutions. It currently partners over 500 enterprise clients across Southeast Asia and India and has seen rapid growth for AI solutions in recent years. Sector focuses include banking, financial services, fintech, payment, retail and e-commerce. ADVANCE.AI is a Series C-backed company and part of a consortium bidding for Singapore’s digital wholesale banking licence.

Darshan Shah is the Managing Director of India at ADVANCE.AI. He most recently served as the Chief Business Officer of Trusting Social, a leader in alternate data scoring and AI-based digital customer onboarding, where he managed its India operations. Prior to that, he held leadership positions with top bureaus such as Experian, Transunion, and Equifax in India and Canada. Darshan is passionate about helping companies grow through his business acumen and leadership skills.

Agritech Firm Aquaconnect Hires Former Urban Company and CropIn Leaders

• Arpan Bhalerao of Urban Company joins as Chief Growth Officer
• Amit Salunkhe of Cropin joins as VP Sales 
• Plans to hire 100 by Dec 2020

India’s leading aquaculture technology company, Aquaconnect announced the hiring of Arpan Bhalerao as Chief Growth Officer and Amit Salunkhe as VP Sales. The Chennai based startup plans to further strengthen its core technology and operations team and hire 100 people by Dec 2020. Aquaconnect is recognized as one of the World-Changing Ideas 2020 by Fast Company.

The company has seen increased demand over FY 19-20 with aqua-farmers adopting the technology.  Aquaconnect works with more than 13,000 fish and shrimp farmers and helps them with its AI-powered farm advisory solution FarmMOJO which supports farmers to monitor and track farming activities such as a change in water quality, feed intake, shrimp growth, and disease occurrence precisely. The full-stack aquaculture technology venture improves farm productivity and sustainability through AI and Satellite remote sensing technologies. 

A WEF Young Global Leader, Rajamanohar Somasundaram, CEO and Co-Founder of Aquaconnect said, “Signing up top tech and management talents was a steep challenge for agritech startups. We witnessed the change of trend in 2019; India's agritech, dairytech, aquatech startups attracted about $245 million in investments from venture capitalists. High growth potential, unparalleled access to capital have made agritech one of the primary attraction for the top talents."

“At such an opportune time, we welcome Arpan and Amit in our leadership team. Both leaders bring years of consumer and agritech experience to Aquaconnect. Their learning from scaling up operations in their past experiences will help us accelerate growth in India and new frontiers in Southeast Asia."

At Aquaconnect, Arpan Bhalerao will lead the product development, partnerships & alliances and strategic initiatives for the company. Amit Salunkhe will be heading the sales focused on Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Enterprise & Govt vertical

Arpan has worked with Urban Company as AVP. Arpan is a graduate from IIT Madras and completed his MBA from ISB. Amit Salunkhe has worked with CropIn and managed BFSI and West India for them. Amit comes from the background of sales with 15+ years of experience.

About Aquaconnect:

Headquartered in Chennai, Aquaconnect is a full-stack aquaculture technology venture that works with shrimp and fish aquaculture farmers to improve their farm productivity and market linkage through AI and satellite remote sensing technology. Aquaconnect aims to promote sustainable aquafarming among the farming communities and works with 13,000+ farmers in various states of India. Aquaconnect is funded by HATCH Fund, Norway and India’s biggest Agritech venture capital Omnivore.

Aquaconnect is recognized as World Changing Idea 2020 by Fast Company. The company is also an Innovator at Seafood Innovation Project and Hatch Accelerator, Norwegian Seafood Innovation Cluster. Aquaconnect is a platinum winner of Agriculture Insuretech award at World Bank Group.

Dr Srinivas Chunduru, a key Ola advisor, joins Crowdera India as Chief Advisor Strategic Alliances

Crowdera, a SaaS-based fee-free global online fundraising platform for non-profits and social innovators, welcomes on board Dr. Srinivas Chunduru as Chief Advisor Strategic Alliances. 

With more than 20 years’ experience at Piramal Housing Finance as Business Head and Executive Director, Dr. Srinivas (fondly addressed as Srini by associates) has unparalleled expertise across diverse functions such as P&L Management, Business development, Corporate Strategy, M&A, Investor Relations and Strategic HR. An executive entrepreneur and a well-known business leader, he brings in extensive experience in managing large teams, working closely with foundations and initiatives as advisor and/or as board member, and partnering closely with founders/ promoters/ family managed businesses for strategic business growth.

Dr. Srinivas has been a key advisor for Ola as its Interim CHRO and CEO (OSPL) and continues to be on the board of Ola group companies (OSPL). 

Commenting on his new association with Crowdera, Dr Srinivas Chunduru said, "I am extremely proud of my association with Crowdera India as Chief Advisor- Strategic Alliances. This partnership will leverage the technology, credibility and strength of the Crowdera platform combined with my experience of working closely with large conglomerates, unicorn startups and educational academies for over two decades in India, to bring about a desirable change".

“With its ever-expanding spectrum of innovative offerings like the Digital transformation program for global charities, Donation syndication, Alumni engagement and fundraising platform  coupled with world class technology, Crowdera is poised to create a large impact in its chosen space; and I am very excited to join hands with it to be an impact facilitator. Each of these products are unique and cater to lot of unmet needs in the world of philanthropy. I'm eagerly looking forward to be a part of Crowdera’s vision of digitally transforming 1 million charities by 2030 and creating a positive impact on millions of people”, he added.    

Commenting on the association, an upbeat Chet Jainn, Founder & CEO, Crowdera said, “In current pandemic affected times when philanthropy has become a strong pillar of our society, it is imperative and important that Crowdera makes prudent associations and in Srini – Dr Srinivas Chuduru, we have found the perfect strategic partner. We are delighted and extremely overwhelmed to welcome Dr. Srinivas as our Chief Advisor - Strategic Alliances. Srini will bring to Crowdera, two decades worth of experience in guiding various businesses to strategic growth.”

“Crowdera has an amazing team full of talented people holding a great lineage, having studied in some of the most well-known schools like Columbia, Wharton, VNIT etc and hold work experiences in companies like eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Walmart, Adobe, Ola etc. Srini is an incredible addition to the team and his contribution will bring enormous growth in our business. He is going to guide us on building strategic alliances. We look forward to his counsel and a wonderful and extremely glorious journey with him”, Chet added.

Dr. Chunduru has earlier worked with initiatives in the space of Food, Livelihood, Skill Development and Education. He is the Founder and Member of Board of Vans Group (Vans Investments, Vans Skilling and Advisory) which has interests in varied areas like Edutech, Fintech, Skilling & advisory and HR analytics. He is also on the board of AF Capital (Avail), an innovative Digital Financial services company.

Recently, in 2020, he has been conferred the prestigious Doctorate in Excellence by the UCT, Delaware, USA for his contribution to the area of management. Dr. Srinivas is also the recipient of several awards like CLO of the year (TISS, Leap Vault), Gold award for Best Simulation for finance (CLO conference) and CHRO of the year (TOI).

About Crowdera

Crowdera is a SAAS technology company that builds scalable fundraising and syndication platforms and solutions with inbuilt virality creating a network effect. Crowdera offers fee-free online syndicated team fundraising & crowdfunding platform for nonprofits, foundations, corporations, and social innovators serving individuals and communities. The Crowdera difference being that all fundraising and crowdfunding is absolutely free on this platform with no donor dipping. Fundraisers on Crowdera can raise money without losing any commission or fee from donations received.

Founded in 2014 from Silicon Valley with a principle that believes in the power of giving to create abundance around us, Crowdera platforms now support charitable fundraising, crowdfunding, corporate & celebrity donation syndication, and employee engagement, in a single value chain.