Venture Gurukool

Swarup Sahoo is the Founder and Chief Mentor of Venture Gurukool, bringing over 20 years of private equity and venture capital experience. He was previously a Senior Investment Advisor to Siguler Guff, a global fund-of-funds with over $10 billion AUM, where he advised on portfolio exit strategy. He managed a growth and buyout SME fund in India with approximately $365 million AUM across three funds. He also founded Smile, one of India's first digital media and e-commerce incubators, which made successful exits to WPP, Yahoo, and Dentsu, with portfolio companies backed by Sequoia Capital and DST Global.

Ntasha Ahluwalia leads proprietary investments for Venture Gurukool across India and Southeast Asia, providing strategic guidance on fundraising and exit strategy. She is also a Director at Qihoo India Finance and a BSE-listed director at Lerthai Finance Limited, where she serves on the Audit, Remuneration, and Stakeholder Relationships Committees. Previously, she led the innovation initiative at the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA), focused on early-stage investment and attracting foreign VC to India.

Manish Narang oversees finance, corporate strategy, fund raising (VC, PE, IPO), M&A, and investor relations at Venture Gurukool. Over a 23-year career, he has worked across startups, SMEs, and large corporates in retail, media, internet, and manufacturing. He was President – Finance & IR at Vector Industries, led multiple IPO processes, and held senior roles at Archies, Indiatimes, and GreenDust. He is a Company Secretary (ICSI) and Cost & Works Accountant (ICWA), and also runs an independent corporate advisory practice.

Kaushal Bansal heads financial services at Venture Gurukool, with expertise in building financial strategies across IT, mobile, media and entertainment, retail, travel, manufacturing, and healthcare. He was previously Head of Corporate Advisory at Providence Consultants, which provides research and analytics support to PE/VC firms.