Samir is a serial entrepreneur who brings a strong mix of entrepreneurial passion and deep knowledge of the SME lending space. He started SMEcorner, a new age Fintech lender, that helps SMEs in India meet their working capital needs. Samir brings 33 years of experience from leading companies such as Citibank, HDFC Bank, Barclays Bank, and Equifax. Samir is an avid runner (he has completed 50+ marathons and half marathons to date) and an animal lover.
Samir is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India and a Cost Accountant from the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of India
Neela is the founder of Search and Inspire, a boutique Executive Search firm in India. Neela has over 35 years of experience - She started her career with TCS, then worked with Lazard in investment banking and with American Express Bank in their treasury, before venturing into Executive Search in 2001 with Personnel Search Services and thereafter with Executive Access.
She founded Search and Inspire in 2010 - an Executive Search firm specializing in Banking & Financial Services and Real Estate, focusing on mid to senior-level searches across India.
Neela is a Management Graduate in Finance from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (Mumbai).
Vikas is Managing Director at Accion Venture Lab, the world's leading seed-stage investor in fintech for the underserved.
At Venture Lab, Vikas leads the group's work on investments, in addition to leading portfolio relationships and driving strategy and growth. Prior to joining Accion, Vikas worked at Evercore Partners where he was on the Mergers and Acquisitions team.
Previously, Vikas spent two years focused on the Microfinance Sector, primarily in India, at Ujjivan and Catalyst Microfinance Investors (CMI). He started his career at Deloitte Consulting where he was in the Corporate Strategy group.
Vikas has a bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.
Siddharth Parekh is the Co-founder and Senior Partner at Paragon Partners, a leading India-focused mid-market private equity firm. He has over 17 years’ work experience across the US, UK, and India, a majority of which involved investing in emerging markets.
Prior to co-founding Paragon Partners, Sid served as a Principal in the Mumbai office of Actis, a leading emerging markets private equity fund with a growing portfolio of investments in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with an AUM of over $6 billion. Sid joined Actis’ London office in 2008 and focused primarily on the Financial Services industry. He completed 6 investments across a number of sectors and geographies, managed 8 companies in Actis' Indian portfolio, and executed 6 exits. Sid has also been an active participant in the angel network in India, having invested in a number of start-ups engaged in the financial technology and health & fitness sectors.
Prior to Actis, Sid was an Investment Analyst at the International Finance Corporation based in Washington D.C. focusing on investing in the Global Manufacturing & Services sectors and also spent 2 years as a Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in New York.
He has an MBA and Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ganesh Rengaswamy is Co-founder & Partner at Quona Capital, a first-of-its-kind VC firm investing in leading fintech companies across emerging markets. Ganesh leads Asia investments for the firm.
Prior to Quona, Ganesh was a General Partner of Lok Capital, a venture growth fund that invests in enterprises offering innovative services in financial inclusion, education, and employability. Ganesh previously served as Director and Head of Asia for Unitus Inc., backing commercially sustainable solutions in inclusive finance. At Lok and Unitus, Ganesh advised several pioneering financial services leaders including Ujjivan, SKS Microfinance, Equitas, and Bandhan. Prior to Unitus, he led the entry of Silicon Valley-based VC firm, Greylock Partners into the Indian market and co-founded Travelguru.com (acquired by Travelocity). Early in his career, Ganesh worked on Fortune 500 consumer and financial services clients at Infosys.
Ganesh's current and past investment and entrepreneurial advisory roles include Unitus Seed Fund, Village Capital, the Indian Angel Network, Accion Venture Lab, GSF, IIM-Ahmedabad, and ISB, and he has been featured on Bloomberg, CNBC, and The Economic Times. His current investments include IndiaMart, NeoGrowth, CreditMantri, SMECorner, Fisdom, Julo, Sunday, Koinworks, and Bukuwarung. Ganesh previously served on the boards of Hippocampus Learning Centres, Coins.ph, Rural Shores, and Shubham (exit to Premji-Invest). Ganesh has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and Masters and Engineering degrees from IIM Kolkata and IIT-Varanasi, respectively. Ganesh is a frequent speaker at global industry events including Asia Investment Conference, SuperReturn, Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), India-China Fintech Summit, and LendIt.
