The IndiaCo team has a rich blend of international as well as domestic investment and operating experience. The entire team at IndiaCo comes in with a wide variety of experience that encompasses the fields of corporate finance, advisory, international business and venture capital. The management team along with the Board of Directors and Advisors are committed to work cohesively towards increasing shareholder value.

Rahul Patwardhan
Vice Chairman and Managing Director

Rahul has over 14 years of experience in venture capital, general management and product management. He has personally invested, mentored and advised several mid-sized and large corporations.

At IVL, Rahul is responsible for managing all investment and operational aspects, establishing partnerships with corporations for technology collaboration and venture capital funds and providing strategic business guidance to IndiaCo companies and other companies under IndiaCo’s constellation.

Rahul has extensive international experience, expertise with small, mid-sized and large corporations in the real-estate, engineering and software industries in business planning and strategy, and has held positions in operations management, finance & investment analysis and business development.

Rahul was a former member of the Advisory Committee for the Department of Science and Technology (STEP) and the Chairman of the Incubation Committee of the NIF (National Innovation Foundation) of India. Presently, he is actively associated with Identity Foundation, an NGO focused on educating underprivileged children. Rahul has been awarded by the Indian Economic Development Association (IEDRA) for "Outstanding Contributions to National Development".

Rahul holds a Masters in Business Management and a Mechanical Engineering Degree from Pune University.

Dhananjay Bendre
Executive Director

Dhananjay has over 19 years of experience in developing product strategies and services internationally. In the past, he has worked in several roles; entrepreneur, vendor, customer, investor and advisor, which help him, understand the grass-root issues and propose solutions to the corporate customers. Dhananjay has hands-on experience in developing businesses in several verticals like Finance, Banking, Construction, IT, Telecom, & Manufacturing. He has worked across the globe in several organizations like Oracle Corporation, TATA, Unisys, HCC, etc.

Prior to joining IndiaCo, Dhananjay was running his own financial & corporate advisory company. His expertise lies in turning around companies, raising capital, deploying the funds in high growth opportunities, developing networks, strategic partnerships, business planning, channel development, BPO, software outsourcing, investments and mergers & acquisitions. Moreover, Dhananjay has extensive knowledge about stock markets and raising capital for listed companies. He has to his credit, several awards & recognitions and his articles are constantly published in leading international magazines.

Dhananjay is Executive Director and COO at IndiaCo, and his charter is to build IndiaCo as a global financial house. He is responsible for fund raising, investments, advisory business and ensuring ROI to IndiaCo’s shareholders. Dhananjay completed his Bachelors in Science and Masters in Business Administration.

Vin Bhattacharjee
Non-Executive Director

With foundations in economic and management consulting, Vin Bhattacharjee was an experienced business manager with a strong sales and client relationship management background.  He has a proven track record of building new businesses in new markets and extending existing franchises in both investment banking and asset management.  He has over nine years of experience in developing asset management businesses within differing regulatory, commercial, market and client structures through the creation of appropriate products and distribution dynamics.

Vin was the Regional & Country Head and Head of Business Italy, France and Iberia of Barclays Global Investors, London.  He was responsible for P&L and all client and product businesses in these regions.  Main products include segregated institutional mandates across all asset classes, hedge funds and fund of hedge funds, exchange traded funds.  He has worked with several International Firms like Barclays Global Investors, SG Securities, London & Mumbai, ING Barings, London & Mumbai, Putnam Hayes Bartlett & Lexecon, Los Angeles & London etc.

Vin did his MSc in Economics from, London University, and he did his Economics Graduation from London school of Economics. He has extensively worked in Europe, US and Asia and has to his credits several publications.

Reuben Abraham
Independent Director

Reuben is with Cornell University's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Johnson School of Management and a visiting faculty at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad. He is the Director of the Base of the Pyramid Learning Lab in India, a joint venture between ISB and Cornell. He serves on the global board of directors of George Soros' Economic Development Fund (SEDF), a $145 million fund which aims to catalyze growth in emerging markets. Under the aegis of SEDF, he is setting up a unique India-focused SME seed fund. He was also a TED Global Fellow for 2007 and and a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. He founded and runs the International Private Enterprise Group (IPEG), a New York based network of professionals, which promotes the role of the private sector, capital markets and technology in catalyzing economic development in emerging markets.

Before Cornell, he finished his Ph.D. from Columbia University. During his time at Columbia, he was an Associate Fellow in Global Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and also a Fellow at the Public Policy Consortium. He was a Sloan Foundation/CITI Telecommunications Fellow in 2000. Earlier, he was a co-founder of the RISC (Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons) project. RISC aimed to correct rural market inefficiencies by providing a shared infrastructure platform for user services in a commercially sustainable way by aggregating rural demand and coordinating infrastructure services. During the past eight years, he has worked at three Columbia University research centers, including the Earth Institute, the Columbia Institute of Tele-Information (CITI), a telecom think tank at the Business School, and the Interactive Design Lab. In addition, he also did a consulting stint at the World Bank, where he evaluated the economic impact of telecom on countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mercosur region, India, and China.

Before Columbia, he was involved in the media/telecom business, with two start-ups including Just Another Magazine (J.A.M), one of India's most successful youth magazines. Reuben is also one of the earliest bloggers out of India, with two award winning blogs, Zoo Station (personal blog) and the Indian Economy Blog (a group blog).

Sasha Mirchandani
Independent Director

Sasha Mirchandani, Venture Partner, BlueRun Ventures, joined the firm in January 2007. He focuses on consumer internet, mobile, media, entertainment and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO). He is responsible for building the BlueRun Ventures brand in India in addition to helping portfolio companies build low cost operations in India to improve capital efficiencies and to leverage BlueRun Ventures’ global platform to help Indian companies to expand globally.

Prior to joining BlueRun Ventures, Sasha was at Mirc Electronics where he was head of corporate affairs and new business. Prior to that he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies, a BPO focused on the telecom space, and prior to that he founded Cocoon Ventures a early stage investment company.

Sasha sits on the board of Fractal Analytics, Algorythm, Gulita Securities, Madhouse Media, and AsliSale.

Recently Sasha founded Mumbai Angels. This is the first time that a group of angels has come together to invest in seed stage companies in Mumbai. Some of the companies they have invested in are Mkhoj, Madhouse and Netelixer.

Sasha completed his Business Administration from University in Virginia and MMDP program at IIM, Ahmedabad. He is past president of the Bombay Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs organization. He is also an advisory board member of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International studies (SAIS) in India, Chairman Maharashtra Committee - Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), and Charter Member - TiE Mumbai.

His life mission is to play a small part in the eradication of poverty in India.

Prithipal Singh
Independent Director

Mr. Prithipal Singh was former Chairman & Managing Director of BSNL and with over 40 years of experience; Mr Singh joins IndiaCo with extensive international experience, having worked in 40 Countries he brings operations experience to the IndiaCo team so as to assist the board in making acquisitions, mergers and bring value to the investment opportunities.

Mr. Singh was a nominee of Padmashree Award 2003, Mr. Singh is a board member of Punjab Venture Capital Limited, Punjab Information & Communication Technology Corporation Limited, AMITY Institute of Telecom Technology and Management, Punjab Engineering College etc.

Mr.Singh joins IndiaCo to mentor and advise the identified companies in the telecom sector so as to create a medium size telecom entity providing services from “Tower to VAS” under the IndiaCo umbrella.

Suneel Parasnis
Independent Director

Mr. Suneel Parasnis has vast experience in areas of environment and energy and a wide international trade network. Previously, Suneel was with ‘World Resource Institute’ (WRI), where he focused extensively on waste management, pollution prevention, energy conservation, renewable energy, trade and consulting, etc. He was the Country Director of “New Ventures India” (NVI), which aims at economic development by helping Indian entrepreneurs overcome challenges and deliver environmental and social benefits.

He started his career at Thermax and went on to join USAID as regional director of US-AEP Project in the western region based at the US consulate in Mumbai, India. He has worked with leading companies like J&J, BASF, GM, etc to promote the ‘Energy Efficiency Championship Program’.

Suneel has received several awards for ‘Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Environmental Stewardship’ and various other awards for individual and team performances. Suneel is one of the board members of the ‘Indian Environmental Association’ and works closely with US aid on clean energy and environment projects in Asia.

Suneel completed his mechanical engineering from Pune University and has been trained in project management, finance management, sales & marketing management, organizational management, and leadership development.