The world turns its eyes to India amidst the many developments that have taken place over the last few months - from India hosting the G20 this year, to the rapid success of digital tools such as UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and the first moon landing. The Indian diaspora has also achieved record-breaking success in various fields with 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 90 US unicorn founders, and 21% of Cloud 100, all being part of the Indian diaspora. With India's rising global leadership and the acceleration of the global innovation economy, many wonder where India is heading and how it is navigating its new role in an increasingly multipolar world.

Join us on Wednesday, Oct 25 from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. PT for an engaging panel discussion that delves into the insights from the "State of Markets India Report" by Silicon Valley Bank, and explores the evolving dynamics within the context of India's rapidly changing market landscape. This event promises to offer a deep dive into key trends, opportunities, and challenges that are reshaping the economic and geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.

Silicon Valley Bank speakers include Andy Tsao, Managing Director of SVB’s Global Gateway; Ella-Tamar Adhanan, Vice President of SVB's Global Gateway; and Liz Cahill, senior technology researcher at SVB. Esteemed panelists include Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners; Kirthiga Reddy, CEO of Virtualness; and Priya Saiprasad, Touring Ventures. 

After the program, join for happy hour, snacks, and networking!

Agenda 

• 5:00 – 5:30 Registration and Networking
• 5:30 - Program Starts
• 6:45 - Program Ends
• 6:45 – 7:30 Happy Hour

Registration and confirmation are required at least 24 hours before the event.

Speaker Bios 

Ella-Tamar Adhanan is a vice president within Global Gateway, Silicon Valley Bank’s international market expansion team. She works with some of the most disruptive and exciting companies from emerging international markets, with a focus on India, the Middle East and North Africa. Based in San Francisco, Ella extends SVB’s network and services to entrepreneurs and investors from these global markets as they expand and scale in the US. She draws inspiration from clients and founders’ drive, dedication and resilience and enjoys helping them realize their vision through SVB’s platform.

Jishnu Bhattacharjee is Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners, a leading US - India venture capital firm, investing in innovative technology companies for the global markets. Jishnu and his firm have invested in over 100 companies in the US and in India across AI, technology infrastructure, software, consumer internet, fintech and a wide variety of start-ups. Jishnu currently serves on the boards of Postman, Druva, H20.ai, Observe.ai, Iambic, Minio and many other exciting companies. Jishnu holds 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.

Liz Cahill is a senior technology researcher at Silicon Valley Bank, she uses data to uncover actionable insights for the startup ecosystem. She holds a BA. in Finance from Drexel University. A Philly native based in San Francisco, in her spare time Liz works to enable music and arts in the Bay Area.

Kirthiga Reddy is the CEO of Virtualness. She brings over twenty years of experience leading technology-driven transformations to her current role as CEO of a high-growth, venture-backed web3 startup, Virtualness, whose roster of investors includes Randi Zuckerberg, Stacy Brown Philpot, Nuseir Yassin (Nas Daily) and institutional investors like Polygon Ventures, Blockchange Ventures and Micron Ventures. She is President, Athena Technology II, the third in a series of all women-led SPACs bringing leading talent, access to capital and transaction experience to enable a market leader to access the equity capital markets. She is Founding Investment Partner of F7 seed fund. She has co-founded Liftery, a social impact initiative focused on changing the landscape for working women and stepping up the careers of ten million moms.

Previously, she was the first female Investing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA), manager of the $100B+ SoftBank Vision Fund. At SBIA, Kirthiga focused on frontier, enterprise and health tech investments and managed a portfolio of $5B+. She served on the Board of Directors for WeWork. She also served on the Investment Committee for Emerge, global accelerator for brilliant companies led by underrepresented founders. 

Prior to SBIA, she was Managing Director, Facebook India and South Asia for over six years, starting as their first employee in India. Her subsequent experiences at Facebook focused on emerging and high-growth markets including Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and the Middle East. She has also served as Chair, Stanford Business School Management Board. 

Kirthiga holds an MBA from Stanford University, where she graduated with highest honors as an Arjay Miller Scholar, an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a B.E. in Computer Science from Marathwada University, India. She has been recognized as Fortune India’s “Most Powerful Women” and as Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” among other recognitions.

Priya Saiprasad is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Touring Capital. Priya co-founded Touring after 13 years in venture capital, M&A and enterprise technology. She was most recently a Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, where she led investments into category-defining software companies including Pixis, Vendr, Observe.ai, CommerceIQ, Sendoso and Skedulo. Previously, Priya was at Mayfield Fund focused on early-growth investments, and a founding member of M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), where she led investments in Go1, Workboard, PandaDoc, Element AI (acquired by ServiceNow), and Bonsai (acquired by Microsoft). Prior to that, she was a Deal Lead in Square’s M&A team leading acquisitions at the intersection of software and machine learning.

Priya was recognized by Forbes in 2018 as part of their 30 under 30 in Venture Capital list. She is actively involved with All Raise, Neythri, and several prominent Women in Tech associations. Priya holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

As a kid, Priya moved across 12 different countries before she turned 12 and has since developed a deep appreciation for entrepreneurs who are scrappy, highly adaptable, and voracious learners. In her free time, Priya is a passionate foodie with a penchant for sushi, a reformer Pilates instructor (to combat all the eating), and a proud mom of Gandalf, Katniss & Jax, two furry felines and a quick-witted pup!

Andy Tsao is a Managing Director and leads SVB’s Global Gateway, which assists innovation companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion. He brings more than 20 years of experience banking dynamic companies in technology industries worldwide.

In his roles, Tsao manages SVB’s relationships with venture capital and private equity firms outside the U.S., and also helps emerging market companies as they seek U.S. market entry and U.S. companies as they seek to expand abroad. In both capacities, Tsao provides these firms with strategic advice and banking services, including debt financing, based on a deep understanding of their needs.

Previously, Tsao led and helped found SVB’s U.K.-based operation, SVB Financial Group UK Ltd, which was established in 2004. For six years, he was responsible for building senior debt relationships with high-growth technology, life sciences and clean technology companies in the U.K. and Europe. Tsao routinely speaks about technology and venture financing at conferences such as events held by the European Venture Capital Association, Super Return, BayBrazil, and Latin American Venture Capital Association. Tsao is a TiE Silicon Valley Charter Member and Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA) Silicon Valley Co-President and Charter Member, and serves on the West Coast Advisory Board for Colgate University.

While based in London, Tsao founded and moderated SVB Financial Group UK’s Venture Capital Advisory Board, was a two-time European Tech Tour Selection Committee member, and served on Think London’s North American Task Force and the Advisory Board for Astia U.K.

Before endeavoring to open the U.K. office for SVB Financial Group, Tsao was a Senior Vice President in Silicon Valley Bank’s Boston office, where he served as a technology lender and senior relationship manager focused on New England’s technology industry.

Prior to joining Silicon Valley Bank in 1997, Tsao was a technology lender at BankBoston, and BayBank in Burlington, Mass. He began his banking career with USTrust in Boston in 1988.

Tsao earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Boston University.

Thank you to our event partner!