Suyash Poddar Associate

Suyash joined the Kotak Private Equity Group (“KPEG”) in July 2022. Prior to joining KPEG, he was in the investment banking division at Motilal Oswal for three years specializing in raising private equity funds across the consumer industry.

Suyash pursued his B.Sc. Economics (Honors) from Presidency University, Kolkata. He is an MBA for Indian School of Business (ISB). He has also cleared Level 3 of the CFA program from CFA Institute, USA; as well as the FRM program from the GARP Institute, USA.

Nidhi Chawla Director

Nidhi Chawla joined Kotak Private Equity Investment team in April 2022. She has been with Kotak since November 2018 and headed the Alternate advisory desk at Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd where she was responsible for origination and diligence of PE/VC and Venture debt funds for advisory clients. Earlier she headed the Alternate products desk at Avendus Wealth Management Private Limited.

She has nearly 16 years of work experience with predominant focus in investment advisory. She started her career in financial services with HSBC Global Markets, London as trader in fund derivatives. Subsequently she worked at Canara Robeco Mutual Fund and Aditya Birla Money Mart Limited where she was responsible for financial planning and product diligence.

Nidhi is a Bachelor of Engineering from RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and has a Post Graduate degree in Management from IIM Bangalore.

Parveen Yadav Associate

Parveen joined Kotak Private Equity Group (KPEG) in February 2022. Prior to joining KPEG, Parveen was in the Investment Banking division at J.P Morgan Services India for 3 years where he specialized in capital raising and M&A advisory for TMT sector in North America. He worked on companies across software and internet space.

Parveen pursued his B.Com from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and M.Com from Delhi School of Economics (DSE). He is an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He has also cleared Level 3 of the CFA Program from CFA Institute, USA

Ankit Aggarwal Associate Director

Ankit Aggarwal joined Kotak in October 2021 as an Associate Director and brings with him 14 years of investment experience.

Previously, Ankit has worked with Lighthouse Funds, Fosun Group and GKFF, investing in technology companies and public markets in US, Israel and India. He began his career with APAC focused hedge fund, Aeneas Capital Management.

Ankit is a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Nitin Deshmukh Advisor – Private Equity

Nitin is a career Venture Capital / Private Equity professional with over 33 years of investment experience who has seen the growth of the VC and PE space from being a mere nomenclature to being one of the most preferred financing vehicles in the country. Nitin’s uncanny ability to identify trends and leaders in their infancy and helping them realize their potential, has been the hallmark of his career. He has lead and managed investments in over 70 companies, a number of which have grown at a scorching pace attaining leadership position in pharmaceuticals, consumer and retails sectors. Of these, the largest number have been in Life Sciences (Pharmaceuticals, Biotech & Health Care), many of them today's global players and include Sun Pharmaceuticals, Biocon, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Ajanta Pharma, Syngene, Manipal Healthcare, Natco Pharmaceuticals, Advanced Enzymes, Neuland Laboratories, Gland Pharma, Bharat Serums & Vaccines, Intas Biopharmaceuticals, Metahelix Life Sciences (since acquired), Rubicon, Fem Care, Medicorp (since acquired), Bangalore Genei (since acquired) etc. He was a member of the Board of Directors of most of these companies.

Since early 2019, Nitin has been spearheading Kotak’s investments in early stage investment program to support new age businesses and differentiated innovations especially in the life sciences sector in the country. The strategy here is to invest in transformational healthcare companies developing and commercializing novel therapeutics, medical devices and services that address unmet medical needs through innovation. The team has since built a sizeable early stage portfolio of companies in this space leveraging on extensive relationships with pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions to advance delivery of affordable patient care with determination to positively impact society.

Nitin has a strong association with the India's Biotech and Pharmaceutical Industry, having served as the first honorary Director General of Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), the apex industry association of biotech companies in India and serving as it’s Director actively participating in various policy committees related to Biotech Policy and Funding constituted by Government of India’s - Department of Biotechnology ( DBT) & Department of Science & Technology ( DST).

Nitin is actively associated with DBT and DST’s start-up funding initiatives in Biotechnology / Life Sciences as a member of their Investment and Advisory Committees as well as their mentoring activities. He serves as a member of the Board of Governors of Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) (formerly UDCT) and is also an independent Board member of Veeda Clinical Research , AGD Biomedicals, Gencrest, Advy Chemical and Samta . Nitin also serves as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Committee on Biotechnology.

Nitin holds an MBA degree from University of Bombay and a Masters Degree in Pharmaceutical Technology from ICT (earlier UDCT), Mumbai where his research work led to a patent filing on machine design for the manufacture of Novel Drug Delivery Systems. He also completed the Post-Graduation Programme in Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Nitin is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award 2012 from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai earlier known as UDCT.

KV Ramakrishna Advisor – Private Equity

KV Ramakrishna is an Advisor to Kotak Private Equity Group (KPEG). He joined the team in October 2004. With over 25 years of experience in the private equity and venture capital industry, he is instrumental in building KPEG's investment focus with a value-based long-term investment strategy.

Ramakrishna's experience spans sectors like information technology, light engineering, retailing and services. His controlled risk strategy has helped identify local businesses with interesting growth ideas and predictable cash flows.

Earlier, he was associated with the Carlyle Group's Carlyle Asia Venture Partners (CAVP), a USD 330 million technology-focused fund. Before joining Carlyle, he was a part of ICICI Venture, the private equity and venture capital arm of the ICICI Group. Ramakrishna started his career with the Management Services Division of Tata Motors (then TELCO), India's largest automobile company.

Ramakrishna has a Post Graduate in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. He completed his graduation in Computer Sciences and Engineering from the National Institute of Technology at Warangal.

Dhiraj Rajendran Executive Director

Dhiraj Rajendran joined Kotak Private Equity Group (KPEG) in November 2008. Prior to joining KPEG, Dhiraj worked with the mid-market investment banking team at Kotak for nearly a year, focusing primarily on private equity transactions.

Earlier, Dhiraj was with J.P. Morgan Services India Private Limited working in their investment banking research division as part of the M&A advisory team for the Consumer, Healthcare and Retail sectors. Dhiraj started his career with Thermax Limited in Pune. At Thermax, Dhiraj worked in the treasury department, where he was responsible for investment management, cash management and select banking functions.

Dhiraj is a Bachelor of Engineering from D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai (specializing in Production Engineering) and has a Post Graduate degree in Management from NMIMS, Mumbai.

Rahul Shah Associate Director

Rahul Shah joined Kotak Private Equity Group in September 2012, bringing with him more than seven years of experience across private equity, investment banking and treasury, of which the last three years were in private equity.

Prior to joining Kotak, Rahul worked with Multiples Alternate Asset Management and Fidelity Growth Partners India where he was involved in several growth private equity transactions across IT, Telecom, Banking, Services and Power. Before moving to Private Equity, Rahul worked in the Treasury and Investment Banking Group of ICICI Bank for four years where he led the TMT initiative for the Investment Banking group of the Bank.

Rahul is a CA, CS, CFA, FRM and MBA from INSEAD.

Sandesh Soni Associate Vice President

Sandesh Soni joined Kotak Private Equity Group (KPEG) in May 2020. He brings with him 3 years of experience across investment banking, corporate strategy and system engineering roles.

Prior to joining KPEG, Sandesh was in the Investment Banking division at J.P. Morgan Services India where he specialized in M&A advisory for Diversified Industrials in North America. He serviced clientele across Aerospace, Automotive, Business services, Logistics and Transportation sectors. He also had a short stint in healthcare consulting and strategic partnerships at Philips India.

Sandesh pursued his Engineering from College of Engineering, Pune and holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He is also pursuing the CFA Program from CFA Institute, USA.

Prudhvi Raj Associate Vice-President

Prudhvi Raj joined the Kotak Private Equity Group (KPEG) in October 2017. Prudhvi brings with him ~ 5 years of investment banking experience with deal credentials in financial services, media and consumer sectors.

Prior to joining KPEG, Prudhvi was part of the investment banking team in Ambit with a focus on M&A and private equity transactions in financial services and media sectors. Earlier he was with the investment banking team of JM Financial and worked on multiple M&A and ECM transactions in a wide range of sectors.

Prudhvi holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and is a Post Graduate in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Ashish Ranjan Vice President

Ashish Ranjan joined Kotak Private Equity Group in September 2021. Prior to joining Kotak Private Equity, Dr. Ranjan was at Sanofi India, where he was leading consumer insights and new product planning for India. Dr. Ranjan was also part of the Cipla’s commercial and scientific diligence team with focus on building US specialty portfolio. He was primarily involved in assets identification and diligence based on scientific and commercial parameters ultimately to drive various acquisition opportunities from strategic and financial standpoint. He also worked as management consultant at IQVIA Consulting (formerly known as IMS health) where his work ranged from market access, commercial diligence, business strategy and health policy across life science/healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

He holds a Ph.D in Molecular Medicine from Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany and completed MS in Business Management from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He received BSRT and Novo Nordisk scholarship respectively. Previously, he was also a fellow at the Institute of Medical Biology (A*STAR), Singapore. With more than 10 years of experience in research and industry, Dr. Ashish Ranjan comes on board with profound understanding of biological sciences and life science/healthcare industry.

Dr Rushikesh Deshpande Associate Vice President

Rushikesh Deshpande joined Kotak Private Equity team in October 2021. He brings close to 9 years of experience of working in Healthcare sector in India across strategy, corporate finance and investment banking roles.

Prior to joining Kotak Private Equity, Rushikesh worked with India Medtronic in strategy (Growth projects) and corporate finance teams for close to 5 years. As a part of these roles, he engaged healthcare ecosystem to create and analyze investment proposals for public private partnership (PPP) models, specialty clinics, capital investments etc. In the past, Rushikesh has worked with advisory divisions of Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young to help companies raise private equity funds.

Rushikesh holds MBBS degree from Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGGMC), Nagpur and an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Sciences (NMIMS), Mumbai.