Lumikai

With over 16 years of experience as an investor, entrepreneur, and operator across India's dynamic content, community, and commerce ecosystems, Niyaz brings a unique blend of early-stage venture expertise, founder empathy, and deep India insight that aligns seamlessly with Lumikai's mission to back the next generation of interactive media and gaming companies. Niyaz was most recently a Partner at GSF, India's pioneering seed investing platform with portfolio FMV of $3Bn and 10x MOIC across 110 companies, where he led 20 early-stage investments across consumer and enterprise tech between 2021-2024. At GSF, he also spearheaded the GSF Founders Academy, the country's largest accelerator program, nurturing bi-annual cohorts of ambitious entrepreneurs and building strong founder communities. Niyaz began his investing career at Federated Hermes Private Equity (committed capital of $12Bn) in London and Singapore, managing private equity fund commitments and direct co-investments across Asia, including India, from 2008-2012. His early exposure to top-tier Indian fund managers provided him with an institutional foundation in investing, with over $1Bn of capital deployed/managed by him. He returned to India to join Lok Capital, a leading impact-focused VC managing over $500M, further deepening his local market knowledge and networks, including investments in MAS and Suryoday, which exited via IPO. As a founder, Niyaz built and scaled BetterButter, India's largest UGC-driven recipe-sharing platform at its peak, bringing together community and commerce in a way that mirrored Lumikai's belief in culturally resonant content platforms. With over 10 million monthly views, content in 7 Indian languages, and 10,000+ recipes added monthly, BetterButter tapped into India's vast digital user base and was acquired by Silverpush in 2019. Post-exit, Niyaz joined Bulbul, India's first live-video commerce startup, which raised $25M from Sequoia and other marquee investors where he helped scale the business from the ground up. He led the creation of three core verticals: live streaming, in-house content production, and an influencer-driven product review network. The company later exited to The Good Glamm Group. Niyaz holds a Bachelor's in Economics from Delhi University and a Master's in Finance & Development from SOAS, University of London.

Tiasha brings more than 8 years of consulting experience in the field of Indian tax and regulations with a focus on the financial services industry. Prior to Lumikai, Tiasha was a part of the Deals practice of PwC, Mumbai where she advised key PE/ VC clients on tax and regulatory aspects across the fund life-cycle including fund set up, key compliances, due diligence, structuring portfolio acquisitions and exits. She has worked on some marquee deals in the private equity and venture capital space. Her earlier stints include corporate and international taxation roles at EY, Mumbai, and PwC, Kolkata where she assisted clients on complex taxation related matters. At Lumikai, Tiasha looks into fund accounting, investor reporting, transaction structuring, fund modelling and portfolio valuations as a part of the finance function. Tiasha holds an undergraduate degree from Calcutta University and is a Chartered Accountant. Tiasha is an avid reader and takes a keen interest in finance and psychology.

Asher Siddiqui is a tech investor with 20+ years of experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship, corporate development, mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Asher serves as an advisor to several global VC and PE funds including Race Capital (early-stage enterprise deep tech VC fund led by Alfred Chuang - founder & CEO of BEA Systems), Merus Capital (top quartile enterprise deep tech VC fund led by former Google and Microsoft corporate development executives), Sukna Ventures (regional MENA VC fund) and the Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG is a listed asset management firm with investments in MENA, Europe and US, including a significant stake in 500 Startups). Asher was previously part of the global leadership team (Partner & member of the Investment Committee) at 500 Startups (most active early-stage VC in the world with a portfolio of 2000+ startups and 10+ unicorns), dividing time between San Francisco and the Middle East. Prior to 500 Startups, Asher was Group Vice President and Global Head of M&A and Venture Capital at Etisalat Group, where he led and closed deals valued at ~$8bn. During his time at Etisalat, he was also a member of the Investment Committee of Mobily Ventures (while seconded as Head of Corporate Development at Mobily). He was also a founding Board Member at iMENA Group and the Chairman of the Investment Committee. Prior to Etisalat, Asher was part of the initial founding team that led the development of CNBC Africa, a leading pan-African business news channel based in South Africa (2005/06) and previously advised and managed the development of a $26m venture investment vehicle for The Center for Applied Research & Training (CERT) in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the MIT Entrepreneurship Centre (2004/05). Asher is also working with the Stanford Center for Sustainable Development & Global Competitiveness on conducting research on innovation ecosystems and corporate innovation, a guest lecturer on the Stanford University Idea to Market (I2M) program, and an active mentor & coach to several startups in Silicon Valley, Europe and the Middle East. He holds a B.A. (Honors) in Business Administration and an M.Sc. in Software Development.