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Ashwin
Damera: CEO and Co-founder
Ashwin worked for Citibank in Madras and Mumbai in various
financial and operating roles. A strong interest in the growth
and success of low cost airlines led Ashwin to work for Dave
Barger, the President and COO of JetBlue Airways. With an
extensive network of family and ex-colleagues in India, he
has returned to India as a successful entrepreneur. He has
completed his MBA degree from Harvard Business School. Ashwin
also holds a chartered accountant qualification from India.
Ganesh Rengaswamy: Co-founder
Ganesh brings extensive business transformation and information
technology experience to Travelguru.com. At Infosys Technologies,
he managed mission critical engagements for Fortune 1000 clients
in financial services, transportation and online retail sectors.
He was also an integral part of the Infosys Retail Business
unit’s client acquisition and alliance initiatives.
Ganesh did a stint with a cross border venture capital firm
before joining Harvard Business School. He has a management
diploma from IIM, Calcutta (India) in systems strategy and
bachelors degree in engineering from the Indian Institute
of Technology-Varanasi / IT-BHU, where he was a valedictorian.
Rajesh Jindal: Chief Financial Officer
Rajesh is an MBA in finance from NMIMS in Mumbai. He has eleven years of post qualification experience with companies like Essar Steel, Marico, and Inox Leisure. He has been involved with new business initiatives such as Kaya Skin Care, where being part of the strategy team for business expansion and product diversification he had setup systems and procedures for the new unit.
Before joining Travelguru, Rajesh was heading finance at Inox Leisure as Vice President – Finance. He was part of the core team at Inox to take the company public in Jan 2006 with an IPO and was also part of the team for an acquisition transaction.
Deepak Mavinkurve: Vice President Operations
Deepak has over 12 years of travel management and operations
experience in leading travel companies like Thomas Cook, Carlson
Wagonlit and Rosenbluth Travel. During his tenures he managed
corporate travel for some of the largest global travel accounts
like Halliburton, Flour Daniel, Infosys and Wipro. Prior to
joining Travelguru, Deepak was Deputy General Manager at ICICI
OneSource, India’s leading BPO company, where he pioneered
travel BPO services in India. He has vast experience in transitioning
and running operations for some of the largest travel brands
of Europe.
Deepak is an IATA/UFTAA advanced diploma holder
and holds Travel Consultancy certifications from Air India,
British Airways and Singapore Airlines.
Hari V. Krishnan: Vice President, Product & Marketing
Hari has several years of experience working for leading companies such as Cisco Systems & Yahoo! India. His experience has been in Strategic Alliances, Product Management & Marketing. In his 5+ years in the San Francisco Bay Area, he played a key role in launching an industry-leading product for Cisco, as well as managing teams around the globe. Returning to India, he headed Business Development & Strategy for the largest Business Unit of Yahoo! India. Hari has a Masters of Science degree in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado and an MBA from INSEAD in France.
Ankur Agrawal: Vice President, Technology
Ankur brings strong entrepreneurial and technology experience to Travelguru. He was co-founder and COO of Madhouse, one of the first organized DVD rental companies in India. Highlights included developing and managing multi-city distribution logistics for next day delivery, and harnessing small retailers as an innovative sales and distribution channel.
Ankur has 6 years of experience in software delivery management. He was part of the product development team at ecommerce pioneer Broadvision, and has managed multiple customer accounts at software services firms such as GlobalLogic and Second Foundation.
He has a PGDM from IIM Calcutta and a Bachelors in Computer Science from IIT Delhi.
Pradipta Biswas : Vice President, Corporate Sales
Pradipta has 14 years of rich experience in sales and revenue management with the hotel industry. He has managed several important hotel brands, including like Royal Orchid Hotels, Blue Diamond Pune, Leela, ITC, Intercontinental, Grand Hyatt and Park Plaza. He has worked closely with several project teams and considers training people as his core strength. Pradipta is a Graduate from Presidency College of Hotel Management, Bangalore and is a certified hotel trainer.
Shaun Dubash: Vice President, Business Development
Shaun has been with Travelguru since its inception and heads the supplier relations for Travelguru. An MBA, Shaun has 8 years experience in the corporate world and has been a part of India’s largest chain of 5-star hotels – The Taj Group of Hotels. He has also been an entrepreneur for 4 years and his several learnings have been incorporated in the way he works today. Shaun prides himself in the ability to understand people, thus resulting in a highly motivated team that spans the country.
Sequoia Capital India
Travelguru is funded by Sequoia Capital India, formed by a
merger between Sequoia Capital and WestBridge Capital Partners.
WestBridge Capital Partners is a Mauritius based Indian venture
capital fund with approximately $350 million under management.
The fund focuses primarily on high growth India domestic services,
consumer internet, consumer wireless, and outsourced services
businesses that are leaders in their market segments. WestBridge
has offices in Bangalore and Silicon Valley.
Sequoia Capital's partners have worked with innovators such
as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle,
Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack
of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry
Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael
Marks of Flextronics and Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google.
To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit Sequoia Capital
Battery Ventures
Since 1983, Battery has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company’s life, from start-up and expansion financing, to growth equity and buyouts.
Battery has supported many breakthrough companies around the world, including: Airespace (acquired by Cisco), Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), LIFFE (acquired by Euronext), and Neoteris (acquired by Netscreen). Its current portfolio in India includes Tech Process, Tejas Networks and Travelguru. Its portfolio also includes emerging firms such as Bazaarvoice, BladeLogic (NASDAQ: BLOG), Netezza (NYSE Arca: NZ), Spot Runner, and TradeKing, as well as more established companies such as ITA Software, eCredit and MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS).
From offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel, Battery manages nearly $3B in committed capital. For more information, visit www.battery.com |
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