Avaana Capital

Anjali Bansal

Anjali Bansal is the Founding Partner of Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund – investing in technology and innovation-led start-ups catalysing climate solutions and sustainability. Previously, Anjali was the Non-Executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, appointed by the Government of India to steer the stressed bank’s resolution and merger with Bank of Baroda. Prior to that, Anjali was a Global Partner and Managing Director with TPG Growth PE, responsible for India, SE Asia, Africa and Middle East and strategy consultant with McKinsey in New York.

Anjali has invested in various successful start-ups including Nykaa, Delhivery, Urban Company, Darwinbox,Farmart, and climate tech leaders like Turno, Terra.do and Eeki. She serves as an independent director on leading boards including Tata Power, Nestle, and Maruti Suzuki India Limited. She has been appointed on the Board of ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) and GIFT City, and chairs the Climate Council within IVCA. She is a Member of the Evolution Review Committee for Niti Aayog, India’s premier policy think tank chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.

Anjali has previously chaired the India board of Women’s World Banking, and served on the boards of GSK Pharma, Siemens, and Bata. She has co-founded and chaired the FICCI program for Women on Corporate Boards.

Anjali is a member of the YPO and a charter member of TiE. She has been listed as one of the “Most Powerful Women” by India’s leading publications, Business Today, Fortune India and Forbes India

Swapna Gupta

Swapna Gupta is a Partner at Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund, leading Investments into technology-led start-ups catalyzing climate solution and sustainability, and delivering exponential returns. Swapna has experience across investing, investment banking and corporate finance, in sectors including Supply Chains, Industry 4.0, Mobility and Agri-tech.

Prior to joining Avaana, Swapna led India investments at Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venture arm of one of the largest global semiconductor technology major Qualcomm, where she invested in various companies including Locus, Shadowfax, Ninjacart, Zuddl, Moveinsync, Reverie, and Stellapps. Swapna also launched Qualcomm Women Entrepreneurs India Network (Qwein), a first of its kind networking, learning, and mentoring program for deep-tech, early-stage female entrepreneurs in India.

Swapna’s stellar work in the ecosystem has been recognized worldwide and she was also recently recognized by GCV as a Top 50 emerging leader in the corporate venture community and was the only one from India on the list. Swapna is also part of class 25 at the prestigious Global Kauffman fellows program.

Previously, Swapna worked as a senior associate at Ernst & Young and as a corporate finance specialist at Vodafone India. She is an Engineer in ECE from NIT Nagpur and has specialized in MBA Finance from FMS Delhi.

Shruti Srivastava

Shruti manages investments at Avaana and brings over 10 years of experience across early stage investing, private equity and development finance. Prior to joining Avaana, Shruti worked with Omnivore, an agritech-focused venture fund where she looked at investments across agricultural technologies, innovative foods and rural fintech. Before that, she worked with Acumen, a global impact venture fund, where she focused on startups enhancing access to utilities, healthcare and retail for low income consumers.

Earlier in her career, she worked with the International Finance Corporation, which is the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, looking at investments in manufacturing, agribusinesses and service sectors in South Asia. Shruti started her career on the sell side with JP Morgan.

Shruti strongly believes that technology, fueled by the power of conscious commercial capital, can play a significant role in addressing broader development goals. She graduated with a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

Rahul Bhapkar

Rahul is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Avaana. In his previous role, he was the CFO of Avanse Financial Services Ltd, a Warburg Pincus and IFC-backed education NBFC, wherein he played a pivotal part in the company’s crucial financial decision making and thereby directing the company towards its ultimate financial goals. Rahul brings 15+years of deep domain work experience across the entire gamut of Financial Management and has worked with organizations such as Wadhawan Global Capital, Wadia Group, Idea Cellular and Boston Analytics. He possesses competent, well-deliberated forward thinking and holistic understanding of corporate finance and played significant role in strategizing, building strong P&Ls and balance sheets for the organizations he worked for.

Rahul is a Chartered Accountant and MBA (Finance) by qualification

Vatsal Dusad

Vatsal is a Vice President at Avaana and an entrepreneur turned VC. He is passionate about early-stage startups, emerging technologies & social impact projects. He enjoys helping mission-driven founders who are solving for large problems.

Prior to joining Avaana, he was working on his own edtech startup where he learnt the challenges of building a startup firsthand. As a founding CEO, he led the overall strategy, fundraising & growth. His venture was backed by Omidyar Network, Sequoia Capital, notable angels and incubators.

He started his career at Avanti Fellows (a social edtech enterprise). At Avanti, he led different business teams and did rotational stints across functions and geographies. As an early-employee he was part of the startup’s journey from Seed to Series B, before he moved on to start his own venture.

He grew up in Jaipur and graduated with a BTech degree from IIT Delhi in 2014. In his spare time he enjoys long-distance running, hiking & trekking through mountain trails.

Rishubh Malpani

Rishubh is a Senior Associate and part of the investments team at Avaana Capital. He is a former management consultant from McKinsey & Company, where he worked primarily in the Growth, Marketing and Sales practice across clients in the consumer, building materials and automotive sectors. He was involved in multiple large-scale sales transformation projects, where he drove impact for clients by leveraging McKinsey’s DNA-enabled growth toolkit.

Prior to this, he interned with Multiples Private Equity, and has also worked with CRISIL and Ambit Capital in their buy-side equity research teams.

He is a Chartered Accountant, CFA charterholder and an MBA from Indian School of Business (ISB), where he was a Dean’s List and Merit List holder.

He grew up in Chennai and, in his spare time, enjoys surfing, traveling and watching cricket.

Dr. Aastha Paliwal

Aastha is a Technology Associate at Avaana, helping with evaluating technology and strategic initiatives. Aastha brings over 7 years of experience in innovation, and technology development.

Prior to her role at Avaana Capital, Aastha completed her Ph.D. from the Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Her research endeavours focused on reducing biowaste carbon footprint and advancing clean energy initiatives, resulting in the development of novel prediction parameters and indexes that bridge critical knowledge gaps in bioenergy research.

During her Ph.D. journey, Aastha also interned at Niti Ayog’s Office of Principal Scientific Adviser (OPSA), where she mapped the climate tech policies of G20 countries. Additionally, she worked with the incubation centre of IISc – Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID, formally SID), as the youngest member.

Srishti Parikh

Srishti is the ESG, Impact and Partnerships Lead at Avaana Capital, driving ESG and Impact integration, measurement, reporting, and communication both at a Firm and Portfolio level.

Prior to joining Avaana, she was a Consultant at Sattva Consulting, where she undertook impact measurement and verification for Corporates, Funds and Social Enterprises. Srishti has provided advisory and strategy support to Global Impact investors including formulating investment thesis and devising sustainability strategy for their portfolio companies. Srishti has also worked with Technoserve wherein she provided employability support to students from Tier 3 & 4 colleges by facilitating placements in the BFSI Sector.

Srishti has graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai with a major in Economics.

Prasad Ghadi

Kashmira Contractor

Kashmira is the Executive Secretary to the Founder at Avaana Capital. She provides administrative support in managing Avaana’s day to day activities. She comes with prior experience in working in numerous industries and is skilled in calendar management, operations and office support.

Kashmira holds a B.Com. degree in Commerce from St. Andrew’s College, Bandra and a Diploma in Secretarial Practice from Daver’s College.

S RAMADORAI

Mr Ramadorai is the former Vice Chairman, MD and CEO of Tata Consultancy Services – India’s most valuable company. He has been conferred with the Padma Bhushan – the third highest civilian honour in India, and the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was appointed by the Indian Government as the advisor to the Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, for the National Skill Development Council. Mr Ramadorai has been the Chairman of the Bombay Stock Exchange, a member of the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry and served on the boards of various Indian and Multinational Firms.

SANDEEP SINGHAL

Sandeep co-founded Nexus Venture Partners in 2006 and grew its AUM to $1.5 billion and portfolio of over 75 companies before transitioning to a Senior Advisor role in October 2021. Sandeep represents Nexus on the boards of various portfolio companies. He was co-founder & CEO of Medusind Solutions. He co-founded and led eVentures India with investments in CustomerAsset, MakeMyTrip, and Netmagic Solutions. He has held senior roles at McKinsey & Company, Digital Equipment and EDA Systems. Sandeep has an MBA from The Wharton School and BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is on the Board of TiE Mumbai, actively involved with the Wharton and Stanford India Alumni Associations and various philanthropic organizations.

A N ROY

Mr. Roy is a distinguished former civil servant, having served in the Indian Police Services for nearly 4 decades, retiring as the Director General of Police in Maharashtra. Post-retirement, he is engaged in the social sector and has set up the Vandana Foundation to support people at the bottom of the pyramid with a livelihood. He has been or is on the boards of prominent companies including HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv etc.

Mridula Ramesh

Mridula Ramesh is the founder of the Sundaram Climate Institute, which focuses on waste and water realities, solutions and education. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books “’The Climate Solution” and “Watershed”. She is the Executive Director of Sundaram Textiles, with an expertise in Yarn Manufacturing, Textile Production Management, Power and Water Optimization, and was previously the Joint Managing Director of Southern Roadways (part of the TVS Group). She is part of the Advisory Committee, UNDP India National Circular Economy Project, and the Chairperson of the Board of Governors of NIT, Andhra Pradesh. Mridula is an active climate-tech angel investor with investments across waste management, renewable energy, sustainable mobility and agriculture.

She is an alum of the Kellogg School of Management, and of Cornell University

BOBBY PARIKH

Bobby Parikh is a member of the Advisory Board for Avaana Capital Fund I.

Bobby is the Founder of Bobby Parikh Associates – a boutique firm focused on providing strategic tax and regulatory advisory services. Formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Ernst & Young in India, and the Country Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen, Bobby has served and continues to serve on boards of various private as well as listed Indian companies.

TSEGA GEBREYES

Ms Gebreyes is the Managing Partner and CEO of Satya Capital, an independent investment firm, focused on providing long-term growth capital to African businesses. Satya works in partnership with TPG Growth and works closely with portfolio company management to build a foundation for future growth by developing internal systems, attracting management talent and leveraging its network of deep relationships across Africa. Ms Gebreyes was earlier the Chief of Strategy and Business Development Officer at Celtel International – one of Africa’s most successful companies.