Cat II · Managed by Certus Capital
Simplifying Institutional Real Estate Investing in India
Private equity, private credit and real-estate funds that don't employ leverage except for operating needs. The largest AIF category.
Certus India Opportunities Trust I (IN/AIF2/20-21/0785) is a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund (registered April 2020) managed by Certus Investment Management Pvt. Ltd. — the AIF manager entity of Certus Capital, an independent, team-owned real estate investment management firm founded by Ashish Khandelia in July 2018. Certus Capital specialises in institutional real estate investing and lending in India, targeting opportunistic strategies driven by capital dislocation, credit scarcity, or structural inefficiencies in the market. The firm has advised on more than USD 1 billion of real estate investments since inception, leveraging the team's USD 3.0 billion+ of prior transaction experience at KKR, Morgan Stanley Real Estate, Kotak Investment Bank, and HSBC. Certus also operates Earnnest.me, a secured debt co-investment platform offering 14–15% IRR deals. The fund targets senior credit or control equity structures with uncompromising legal rights and strong governance. Certus India Opportunities Trust II (IN/AIF2/25-26/2035) is the successor fund registered February 2026.
Gaurav Singhal
CTO (Earnnest.me)
Gaurav is the Entrepreneur & CTO at Earnnest. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay'2010 with prior experience of working in consulting & private equity domain with companies such as ZS Associates, GIC & Tata Realty. In 2016, Gaurav founded and bootstrapped Amdigit, a proptech saas startup catering to commercial real estate. He comes with experience in underwriting real estate investments as well as building tech products.
Ashish Khandelia
Founder
Chartered Accountant, MBA (Indian School of Business)
Ashish has over 25 years of experience with expertise in Real Estate Investing and Lending. In his earlier roles, he led RE businesses at KKR and Morgan Stanley Real Estate (MSRE) in India. He has ~US$2Bn+ of transaction experience and has been instrumental in building three businesses around real estate banking, equity investing and lending. Ashish founded Certus Capital in July 2018, with a vision to build an integrated real estate investment management platform. He is a management graduate from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and a Chartered Accountant.
Anisha Babur
Assistant Vice President - Compliance
Company Secretary, Law Graduate
Anisha joined Certus Capital in Jan 2024. She has over 6 years of experience & an in-depth exposure in corporate & core secretarial functions. Among others, her keys areas of expertise include SEBI compliances of debt listed companies, drafting resolutions, policies, form filing and liasioning with statutory authorities. She is a Company Secretary & a Law Graduate.
Sahil Shah
Managing Director
Chartered Accountant, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
Sahil joined Certus in June 2019. An acquisition professional for ~14 years, he has deep underwriting skillset across asset classes including industrial, hotels, office and residential. He is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst.
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Siddharth Pal
Executive Director
MBA (IIM Rohtak), CFA charterholder
Siddharth joined Certus Capital in July 2022. He has over 9 years of advisory, fund raising and debt restructuring experience in Real Estate and BFSI sector. Nature of transactions he has worked on include M&A, private equity, senior debt, mezzanine debt and restructuring across various asset classes of real estate. He has also been involved in insolvency resolution cases. He brings along extensive relationships with real estate companies and institutional investors. Siddharth holds MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak and B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from VIT, Vellore. He is also a CFA Charter-holder from CFA Institute, USA.
Arisha Mittal
Sr Vice President
MBA (Finance), Executive MBA (IIM Bangalore)
Arisha joined Certus in April 2022. A Fund Raising and Investor Relations professional, she has 15 years of experience with a demonstrated history of raising funds in the private equity space. She is an MBA in Finance and an Executive MBA in General Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Teena Gandhi
Executive Director
Chartered Accountant, Master's Certificate in Investment Management (Bayes Business School)
Teena joined Certus in May 2022. She has over 18 years of experience across real estate, online marketplace & wealth management. Her keys areas of expertise include business designing, operations strategy, project management, financial evaluation and funding. She is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Master's Certificate in Investment Management from Bayes Business School, London.
Rittesh Rathi
Vice President
Rittesh has over 17 years of experience in the financial services industry, with expertise in fundraising and financial product distribution. His expertise includes strategy development, market research, fundraising, team management, and client servicing. He has extensive relationships with national distributors and IFAs.
Siddhant Shah
Assistant Vice President
Chartered Accountant
Siddhant joined Certus Capital in November 2019. Siddhant has about 4 years of real estate investments and transaction advisory experience. He is also a Chartered Accountant.
Kushal Doshi
Assistant Vice President
Chartered Accountant
Kushal joined Certus Capital in September 2022. He has over 10 years of experience in real estate investments ranging from deal evaluation, structuring and asset monitoring. He is a Chartered Accountant and has been involved in debt syndication during his internship.
Puja Khandelia
Partner
Ashima Garg
Assistant Vice President
Deeksha Gabra
Analyst
Deep Medatwal
Analyst
Nikita Stokes
PR and Admin Executive
Soham Deshmukh
Analyst
Raman Varma
Associate
See every PMS strategy and AIF from Certus Capital.