Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Investment in India: Naren Gupta Legacy Series

Join Asia Society Northern California, Asia Alternatives and Nexus Venture Partners for an in-person, off the record, panel event on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Investment in San Francisco on Wednesday, September 28 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Pacific.

Business leaders and experts will discuss the digitization of India, rise of entrepreneurship and innovation, investment opportunities, and the role of VCs.  The discussion will also include India's geopolitical positioning and its implications on investment opportunities.  

This program is complimentary and open to Asia Society Members. In order to gain access to this program, you must be an active Asia Society Northern California member.  Learn more and become a member today: https://asiasociety.org/northern-california/join-our-community

This event is in conjunction with Asia Alternatives’ investor week and Annual Meeting and will operate under Chatham House Rule, which means that all remarks by speakers and participants are off the record. Space is limited—priority will be given to Asia Society Members. 

This program is the third of four programs as part of Asia Society Northern California's Naren Gupta Two-Year Legacy Program Series for 2022. Launched in April 2022, this series pays tribute to the legacy of our long-time and beloved Advisory Board Member, Naren Gupta (1948-2021) and will address the topics closest to his heart: business, entrepreneurship, and cultivating the next generation of innovative leaders, especially those hailing from India.  

Discussion leaders will include:

• Praneet Garg (Moderator), Managing Director, Asia Alternatives
• Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners
• Kashyap Deorah, Founder & CEO of Hypertrack
• Ritesh Banglani, Investment Team, Stellaris Venture Partners

Continue checking this event page for agenda details and confirmed speakers.

AGENDA

Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2022 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Pacific

Member Event.

• 5:30 p.m.      Registration & Networking
• 6:00 p.m.      Panel Discussion Begins
• 7:00 p.m.      Panel Discussion Concludes, Time for Audience Q&A
• 7:30 p.m.      Q&A Concludes, Networking Time
• 8:30 p.m.      Exit Venue

Venue: Le Méridien San Francisco, Park Grill (top floor restaurant)

Per our event partners' COVID-19 policy, all in-person guests must submit proof of vaccination, and must take a COVID-19 test the day-of the program. Guests are encouraged to bring a mask. More information about the event's vaccination policy will be circulated in the weeks leading up to the event date. 

SPEAKER BIOS

Praneet Garg is a Managing Director in Asia Alternatives’ Hong Kong office. Mr. Garg is on the Firm’s Investment Committee. Mr. Garg co-leads Asia Alternatives’ investments in India and Southeast Asia, and is primarily responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management of private equity fund investments and direct co-investments in these geographies. Mr. Garg also co-leads the Firm’s Special Situations and Secondaries efforts and leads Asia Alternatives’ market research function.

Prior to joining Asia Alternatives, Mr. Garg had over five years of consulting and research experience with the Private Equity Practice at McKinsey & Company in the Delhi and London offices. He worked with McKinsey Private Equity client teams on issues of private equity strategy, organization, performance and due diligence. He also led the private equity research team and authored several market research pieces on Asia private equity and other related topics.

Mr. Garg holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an M.B.A. from Mumbai University. Mr. Garg is fluent in Hindi and Punjabi.

Mr. Garg currently serves on the Advisory Boards of several of Asia Alternatives’ India, South East Asia and Special Situations funds. He is also on the Program Committee for the Pacific Pension Institute (PPI).

Jishnu Bhattacharjee is Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners, a leading U.S.-India venture capital firm, that has been a pioneer of investing in innovative companies building global technology products leveraging India and technology-led businesses for India. Jishnu has invested in technology infrastructure, data, AI, SaaS and developer operations and is interested in a wide variety of start-ups. Jishnu’s current investments include Postman, Druva, H20.ai, Observe.ai, Minio, Kaltura, Blueshift, Jiffy.ai, and other exciting companies. His exited investments include Kaltura (Nasdaq: KLTR), Rancher (acquired by SUSE), Mezi (acquired by American Express), Cloud.com (acquired by Citrix), Gluster (acquired by Red Hat), Arkin (acquired by VMware) and Elastic Box (acquired by Century Link). 

Jishnu holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, MS from Georgia Tech and BTech from IIT Kharagpur in electronics engineering. He is also an inventor on more than twenty US patents. 

Fourth-time entrepreneur Kashyap Deorah is HyperTrack’s Founder and Chief Executive. He previously sold companies to OpenTable and Future Group. He is also a best-selling author and investor. Kashyap started his first company as a college student at IIT Bombay and sold it to a Silicon Valley firm. Since then, he has operated in the US-India corridor and done business in China, South-East Asia, and Northern Europe. Kashyap has written for leading print and online publications and made keynote presentations at Internet technology and ecommerce conferences. He is the author of 2015’s The Golden Tap—The Inside Story of Hyper-Funded Indian Start-Ups.

Ritesh Banglani is on Stellaris Venture Partners Investment Team and invests in technology companies in Financial Services, Healthcare, Automotive/EVs, Travel and Mobility. He has a strong interest in companies solving uniquely Indian problems, especially those applying new technologies to their industry for the first time. 

Prior to Stellaris, Ritesh was a Partner at Helion, where he invested in companies like Taxiforsure, Lifecell, and Trulymadly. Before he moved to the dark side in 2007, he was a product manager for online and mobile consumer products.

Ritesh loves to engage in conversations about technology, economics, books, comics and cricket – basically your average social media warrior. Once upon a time, he was quite outdoorsy but now he spends his days recalling past glories.

He has a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from INSEAD, and has served as Adjunct Faculty at IIM Bangalore.

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