Is the Indian startup party coming to an end? Decoding the funding winter

Madhukar loves networking and has made very strong inroads in entrepreneur circles. He spent 4 years at Aavishkaar Microfinance and Impact Fund as an investment manager, he was a part of India’s microfinance revolution. An agriculture engineer by training, he has a postgraduate degree from IIM-Lucknow and is the go-to man for all things legal and regulatory at India Quotient. The companies he is closely associated with at IQ are Sharechat, Sugar Cosmetics, Lokal, Bharatagri, and Frnd among others.

Jitendra Gupta is the Founder and CEO of Jupiter. He is Ex-MD of PayU. Gupta was the founder and CEO of Citrus Pay, a leading digital payments company in India. Post-acquisition of Citrus Pay by Naspers, he led the consumer businesses of the combined entity, before leaving to startup again. He graduated from Sydenham College, Mumbai, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Tarana Lalwani is one of the founding partners at InnoVen Capital, where she heads sourcing and execution of venture debt transactions. She plays an active role within the portfolio companies which encompasses facilitating business development, and planning and guidance on further fundraises. Prior to InnoVen, she was a Principal at Seedfund, where Tarana sourced, evaluated and mentored early-stage companies. She also worked closely with the portfolio companies to get them to the next level of growth.

Given her strong ties with angel groups like Mumbai Angles, where she was an active member and the venture investor community, Tarana continues to be involved in the early stage space mentoring and guiding founders on fund raising, strategy and business development and dabbles a bit in some angel investing.

Tarana started her career in New York with Morgan Stanley, following which she joined Radian, a financial services firm, in their structured finance group. Tarana holds an undergraduate degree from LaSalle University, and an MBA from Columbia Business School, USA.

Sandeep is the co-founder of Dezerv, which is an invite-only wealthtech platform aiming to give successful professionals access to high quality investing expertise and exclusive investment opportunities. An Alumnus of IIM Bangalore, previously, Sandeep founded and led the IIFL-ONE platform at IIFL Wealth, India's leading wealth management firm with over USD 22 bn in assets. He was also responsible for redefining the firm's proposition to ensure relevance to client expectations, industry evolution, and regulatory changes. Sandeep is passionate about the use of technology in wealth management, supporting entrepreneurship, and working with the next generation of family businesses.