Leadership at the core of transformation—empowering agriculture at Samunnati.

Mr. Krishnan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant and has over 40 years of multi-industry experience spanning strategy and operations in organizations like Airtel, RPG Group, Murugappa Group etc., and brings financial acumen with a keen sense of entrepreneurship to business. He has built wide experience and knowledge enabling the identification of business scenarios, finding turnaround solutions, nurturing and growing businesses and has handled many startups and helped them scale into multimillion businesses.

Padma Chandrasekaran has over 30 years of experience as an Executive, Entrepreneur, Board Member in the for-profit and philanthropic sectors in India and globally. She has been on the advisory Board and Investment Committees of several Venture Capital Companies. She is associated as a Director/Advisor with Archean Chemicals Ltd, Tyger Capital Private Limited, PNB Metlife India Insurance Company Limited, Health Sensei India Private Limited and SKYFI Education Labs Private Limited. Padma has also authored several highly cited peer-reviewed publications in academic journals such as The Lancet and the British Medical Journal.

Jyotsna Krishnan is a Managing Partner at Elevar Equity. She leads Elevar’s investing strategy and priorities in India, and the investing team that is based in Bangalore. Jyotsna has ~20 years of work experience spanning banking, retail financial services, strategy, business finance, sales and operations, business intelligence and training and development. She has closely partnered with entrepreneurs building transformational business models in sectors such as agriculture, MSME services, affordable education and quality healthcare. Jyotsna’s favourite time is spent in the field, gathering customer insights from the end
customer, the Entrepreneurial Households, and connecting them with founders and the world of capital. Jyotsna has also co-founded EPIC World with the goal of helping build enduring companies to serve Entrepreneurial Households.

Mahendran Balachandran has been venture investing since 2005 and brings with him two decades worth of experience of business leadership in technology companies, including Apple. He holds a management degree from IIM Bangalore and a B.Tech degree from NIT Warangal. He is a lead investor and serves on the board of various companies engaged in the Healthcare and Technology sector. Prior to venture investing, he was the Country General Manager of Apple, India; Chief Operating Officer of CoSystems (Telecom & Datacom Company); and the General Manager of Tektronix India.

With over 15 years of experience in private equity and investment banking, Akshay leads responsAbility’s efforts in Asia Pacific for private equity investments in consumer (food) and agriculture in the mid-market range. Prior to responsAbility, he worked for three years at a mid-market, sector-agnostic private equity fund, and made four growth equity investments at IFCI Venture Capital Funds Ltd. He also has three years of experience in investment banking (equity capital markets), doing public market transactions while working for leading domestic investment banks, including Kotak Mahindra Bank.