Rajeev Saptarshi

Whole-time Director & Chief Operating Officer

Rajeev Saptarshi joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited as the Chief Operating Officer in November 2013. He is responsible for the Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operations and Investor Relations functions of the entire alternate assets practice of the Kotak Mahindra Group.

Rajeev brings with him a wealth of experience in dealing with the regulatory authorities and is well versed with fund structuring and compliance matters. Rajeev has been with the Kotak Mahindra Group for over 20 years during which he has held several senior management roles across different businesses. In his earlier roles, Rajeev was the Chief Operating Officer of the Institutional Equities business at Kotak Securities Limited, where he led Technology initiatives and also headed the Operations and Finance functions. He was also the Chief Financial Officer of Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, the Investment Banking arm of the group where he managed finance and operations.

Rajeev is a Member of the Executive Committee at the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA).

Rajeev is a Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary.

Jignesh Dave

COO & Compliance Officer – Gift City Funds

Jignesh Dave joined the Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. in 2003 and has over 21 years of work experience in the financial services industry.

Jignesh moved to Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd. in 2022. He is a Chief Operating Officer and Principal Officer – Gift City Funds, where he oversees activities of the funds and monitors investments and divestments of the Funds in Gift City.

Prior to Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd., Jignesh was the Head Legal, Compliance and Company Secretary at Kotak Mahindra Investments Ltd. Jignesh has vast experience in realty sector lending and investment transactions, structured finance, securitization transactions and HNI investment instruments. Jignesh has sound experience of litigations for lending and investments in realty sector.

Jignesh is a Company Secretary, Law and Commerce Graduate.

Rahul Jain

Chief Technology Officer

Rahul joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in August 2022 and has over 17 years of experience in Technology and Operations and solution design for the business. At KIAL, Rahul is responsible for the technology and digital transformation initiatives as KIAL anchor the new business journeys at KIAL.

Prior to joining KIAL, he has worked with Motilal Oswal Institution business, IIFL Wealth and AMC , Sanctum Wealth and Royal Bank of Scotland. At IIFL Wealth he was Involved in formulation of the IT strategy and responsible for the implementation of the Digital front end for Wealth and AMC business , Implementation of new change management technology of RPA , AI , Core business application for AMC and advisory business , Launch of new APP and Web of IIFL Wealth .

Rahul is a Chartered Accountant.

Mehul Shah

Senior Vice President – Finance, Accounts and Investor Relations

Mehul Shah Joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in February 2015 and has over 13 years of experience in accounting and taxation.

At KIAL, Mehul is responsible for the accounts function as well as compliance and tax matters.

Prior to joining KIAL, Mehul was a part of the investment banking team at Kotak and was responsible for the accounts, taxation and treasury functions.

Mehul is a Chartered Accountant.

Vijayalaxmi Khatri

Senior Vice President & Compliance Officer

Vijayalaxmi Khatri joined Kotak Investment Advisors in August 2021 and brings with her more than 22 years of experience in legal, compliances and secretarial matters in the Alternative Investments, Wealth Management, Asset Management and Investment Advisory businesses.

At KIAL, Vijayalaxmi is responsible for regulatory and internal Compliance, Risk Management and Secretarial functions across all the businesses of KIAL including AIFs, Investment Advisory and Distribution business.

Prior to joining KIAL, she was associated with Edelweiss for over 11 years overseeing Compliance, Legal, Secretarial and Internal Audit functions for their Asset Management Business which included Mutual Funds, AIFs and Portfolio Management Services. In the later part of her stint with Edelweiss, she was associated with the Wealth Management business overseeing Corporate Compliance function for the Wealth and Investment Management arm.

Prior to joining Edelweiss, Vijayalaxmi was part of the legal & secretarial team at Daiwa Asset Management for about 3 years where she assisted Daiwa in setting up their Mutual Fund and Offshore businesses in India.

Prior to joining Daiwa, Vijayalaxmi was associated with Fidelity Asset Management and ICICI Prudential Asset Management as part of their Legal, Compliance and Secretarial function.

Vijayalaxmi has done her Company Secretary and is a Commerce graduate from University of Mumbai.

Dhiman Chakraborty

Associate Vice President

Dhiman joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in April 2022 and brings with him 11 years of experience in managing ESG risks from an investments perspective and in ESG consulting. At KIAL, Dhiman is responsible for identifying and managing the ESG challenges in a potential prospective deal, manage the ESG requirements of our investors and to provide timely assistance to our existing portfolio companies to manage their ESG issues.

Prior to joining KIAL, Dhiman was part of GEF Capital Partners. At GEF Capital Partners, Dhiman was responsible for monitoring the performances of the portfolio companies, monitor the ESAP, initiate impact assessment studies wherever it is required, address queries coming from the investors and also supporting the deals team for any prospective deal. Before GEF Capital Partners, Dhiman was employed with Environmental Resource Management (ERM) as Principal Consultant and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) as Assistant Manager. He used to work in Merger and Acquisition (M&A) and Performance and Assurance (P&A) team with a rich background of ESG audits and assessments and understanding of regulatory requirements.

Dhiman did his engineering from Dr. MGR University, Chennai in Industrial Biotechnology and also holds a post graduate degree in Environmental Engineering from IIT Bombay. Dhiman has also done a diploma course on Industrial Safety from NILEM in 2013.

Avanti Natu

Associate Vice President

Avanti Natu joined Kotak Investment Advisors in August 2019 and brings with her more than 8 years of experience with respect to legal aspects of M&A, private equity, banking, corporate finance, corporate advisory and corporate compliance.

Before joining Kotak, Avanti worked as a Senior Manager (Legal) with Peepul Capital Investment Advisors, a growth capital sector agnostic private equity fund and was involved in complex investment/ exit transactions and litigation strategy (civil as well as criminal).

Prior to joining Peepul Capital, Avanti was a part of L&T Financial Services where she was involved in transactions with respect to fund raising, private equity, corporate & structured finance, project finance and securitization.

Avanti has also worked in the legal/compliance team of Altico Capital (a leading non-banking finance company) and ALMT Legal (a leading law firm) where she has worked on legal aspects of private equity, M&A, joint ventures, due diligence, entry-strategy and general corporate advisory.

Avanti has is a qualified lawyer graduated in 2010 from GLC Mumbai. Avanti is also a qualified Company Secretary.

Namrata Dhanavade

Associate Vice President

Namrata Dhanavade joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in November 2013 and has over 10 years of experience.

At KIAL, Namrata is responsible for the fund accounting & operations and investor relations functions across all domestic funds. Prior to joining KIAL, Namrata was a part of the Kotak Bank Group Consolidation team and was responsible for the ESOP, SARs and accounting functions.

Namrata is a Commerce Graduate from Mumbai University.

Amita Gupta

Chief Manager - Compliance

Amita Gupta joined Kotak Investment Advisors in December, 2021 and brings with her more than 13 years of experience with respect to merger and acquisition transactions, joint ventures, private equity funding, listing compliances, FCPA and Anti-Bribery compliances and secretarial compliance matters.

Prior to joining KIAL, she has worked at Hines India handling merger and acquisition transactions, joint ventures, private equity funding, listing compliances and requisite filings with Stock Exchanges, fund structuring, contract management and legal drafting.

Prior to joining Hines India, Amita was part of the legal & secretarial team at Anant Raj Limited, where her work area involved equity and debt listing compliances, RBI & FEMA compliances, debt raising, FIPB approval and corporate compliances.

Prior to joining Anant Raj Group, Amita was working with Varahi Limited where she has experience in manufacturing industry compliances, import & export compliances, project financing activities, registration of trademarks and designs along with secretarial compliances.

Amita is a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and is a Commerce graduate from University of Delhi.

Bhumi Shah

Chief Manager

Bhumi Shah joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in May 2022. She brings over 6 years of experience in sales, client relationship management and business development in the wealth & investment management domain.

At KIAL, Bhumi is a part of the Fund Raising Team and looks at building relationships with domestic institutional investors, family offices and corporate treasuries for all in-house funds, namely private equity, real estate, infrastructure, listed strategies and special situations funds.

Prior to joining KIAL, Bhumi was associated with Sanctum Wealth and Citibank managing UHNI Clients and Family Offices and advising them on their asset allocation framework with a strong focus on alternate assets.

Bhumi holds an MBA degree from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies,Mumbai and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Ahmedabad University.

Deepa Shah

Senior Manager

Deepa joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in August 2022 and has over 13 years of experience in Human Resources of which 10 years are within the Kotak Group.

Prior to joining KIAL, she worked at Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd. (KMCC – Investment Banking), Kotak Wealth Management & ASK Investment Holdings Pvt. Ltd., handling Employee engagement activities, On-boarding, Recruitment, HR Policies, HR Operations, Training & Events.

Deepa has done her graduation from Mumbai University.

Urvil Chheda

Senior Manager

Urvil Chheda joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL) in April 2022 and has over 5 years of experience in accounting and audit.

At KIAL, Urvil is responsible for the accounts function. In the past, He has worked with KIAL externally as Internal auditor for about 4 years.

Prior to joining KIAL, Urvil was a part of the fund account team at Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors Limited and was responsible for the accounts.

Urvil is a Chartered Accountant.

Harish Soni

Compliance Manager – GIFT City Funds

Harish Soni joined Kotak Investment Advisors (KIAL) in September, 2022 with 5 years’ experience in matters related to compliance of IFSCA, SEZ & IFSC Stock Exchanges.

Before KIAL, he was associated with ASK properties Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd. in GIFT-IFSC as Compliance Officer. During tenure, he handled core compliances along with AIF operations which included setting up of Branch and Fund.

Estee IFSC was the first company where he started his career in capital market with core responsibilities of regulatory compliance and also played a role in setting up the Stock Broking unit in GIFT-IFSC. He extended his role by liasioning with various stakeholders and handled corporate restructuring of Parent Company.

Harish is an Associate Member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India and also pursuing Executive Programme in Investment Banking and Capital Markets from IIM Calcutta.

Devang Salian

Deputy Manager

Devang Salian joined Kotak Investment Advisors in September, 2021.

Prior to joining Kotak, he worked at JSW Energy for over a year, handling secretarial activities, Compliances related to listed equity, SEBI regulations, ESOP, raising equity and debentures, incorporation of companies and periodic filings with stock exchanges (NSE & BSE) and other regulatory authorities.

Devang is an Associate Member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He is a commerce graduate and pursuing Bachelor of Law from University of Mumbai.

Vaidehi Desai

Assistant Manager

Vaidehi Desai has been associated with KIAL since last 4 years for Fund Accounting.

Vaidehi brings over 14 years of experience in Finance & Accounts prior to joining KIAL. She was independently handling finance & accounts for Lila Polymers Pvt. Ltd (International Trading house in Polymers & Petrochemical Products) & various private Limited Companies.

She holds a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University and she is pursuing MBA Finance Management from Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research.

Karnesh Prabhu

Assistant Manager

Karnesh Prabhu joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited(KIAL) in Jan 2023 and has over 5 years of experience in Operations and Technology team.

Prior to joining Kotak, Karnesh was working with Statestreet HCL as a Specialist in the Reconciliation team and at IIFL wealth in the Operations and Technology team.

Karnesh has an experience in implementing systems for ease of transaction execution, client on-boarding and Fund accounting in previous roles.

Karnesh holds a Bachelor and Masters of Engineering from Thiagarajarcollege of Engineering, Madurai.