Somak Ghosh is the Managing Partner of Contrarian Drishti Partners, an Angel Investment
firm which focusses on early stage enterprises. The Fund’s target sectors are education,
healthcare, affordable housing, energy, livelihoods and agribusinesses – and within these, forprofit enterprises that seek to achieve superior financial returns by delivering core goods or
services to stakeholders as producers or consumers.
Somak has been part of the Co-founding team of Yes Bank. As of fiscal 2011, Somak was Group
President – Corporate Finance and Development Banking, responsible for 70% of the Bank’s
assets (USD 12 billion) and over 50% of the Bank’s profits (USD 0.2 billion). As a Co-Founder,
he has been a key member of the Bank’s Executive Management, the Management Credit
Committee and the Asset Liability Committee for over 8 years and emerged as an exceptional
leader in building start-up businesses and taking them to scale.
Somak has extensive operating experience in creating and implementing strategies across
businesses, building and managing large teams, initiating and growing external relationships
and finding bootstrapping solutions necessary at an early stage of an organization. In his role
at Yes Bank, while building the highly profitable Corporate Finance practice, Somak
simultaneously founded the Development Banking vertical, with application of mainstream
corporate finance structures for delivering financial services to previously underserved
populations. His path-breaking commercial banking services to low-income populations for
over 1 million families annually (~ 5 million people) were recognized in a Harvard Business
School (HBS) 2010 case study and subsequently won him a Public Service Fellowship at
Harvard in 2011. Somak decided to move on from Yes Bank in September 2012 to pursue his
professional and personal passion of Contrarian Capitalism for Mainstreaming Change –
moving the investment thesis of investing in BoP businesses from niche to mainstream.
In addition to Yes Bank, Somak has had extensive experience both domestically and
internationally with ICICI, Reliance, Ispat Europe (now Arcelor Mittal) and Rabo Bank. He also
sits on the Investment Committee of Motilal Oswal Real Estate Private Equity.
Somak is an alumnus of Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, India and B.E Chemical
Engineering, University of Mumbai, India. He is also an Advanced Leadership Fellow 2011
from Harvard University, USA.
Shailesh Ghorpade is the Co Founder and Managing Partner of Exfinity Venture Partners, a VC
fund focused on funding early stage start ups in Deep tech B2B space. Exfinity presently
manages assets of approx. USD 70 million and has launched its third fund targeting USD 70
million. Exfinity is promoted by industry stalwarts in the Technology space that includes TV
Mohandas Pai, Girish Paranjpe among others, and the thesis is to back disruptive ideas where
technology is a strong moat. Exfinity was the only true-blue fund to do Enterprise Deep Tech
deals and still remains one of the rare funds in India to occupy this space.
Shailesh has 28 years of post-qualification experience in Consulting, Financial Services,
Renewables and Real Estate having worked in leadership positions with organisations like
Price Waterhouse, Tata Finance, Infosys and Suzlon Energy. He was a co-founder and CEO of
Azure Capital Advisors a real estate PE Fund before founding Exfinity.
Shailesh is an alumnus of Institute of Chemical Technology (formerly University Department
of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai, India) and Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of
Management Studies, Mumbai, India.
An avid golfer, Shailesh also likes to read, write, run and listen to music. He has written several
articles for renowned publications related to technology trends.
Kaustav Saha is Managing Director of Omkarm Capital. He has
previously worked in various Banking, Investment and Operation roles across India and
Britain. Kaustav started his banking career with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Plc in Britain,
one of the oldest Financial groups in the world headquartered in Edinburgh, UK. Kaustav
worked across various roles within the RBS Group, and also within the NatWest Group.
Kaustav moved back to India in 2011 and since then has worked previously with Waterfield
Advisors based out of Mumbai, India and Shriram Properties based in Bengaluru, India.
Omkarm Capital has been founded to create boundaryless impact, a globally relevant but
India-born institution, that delivers disciplined performance while serving society beyond
borders. Omkarm strives to create lasting impact for all its stakeholders including investors,
employees, partners, shareholders and the communities in which we live and work.
Kaustav is an alumnus of Bangalore University, India and University of Strathclyde GSB,
Glasgow, UK.
Prosenjit Purkayastha is Director - Investments of Omkarm Capital. He is a qualified Chartered
Accountant with over 30 years of overall experience in some of India’s most reputed
companies across public market listed and privately held spaces.
Prosenjit is a highly experienced Finance professional with experience in companies like
Quest Global, Bharti Broadband, HCL
Comnet, Mahanagar Gas Limited. In his last role, he was the CFO of Shriram Properties
responsible for the company’s Finance and Accounting team, providing strategic
recommendations to the Executive Management team and Board, managing budgets while
overseeing all financial reporting. During his tenure, Shriram raised private equity capital from
Tata Capital flagship Tata Opportunities Fund at entity level, and several other investments
at project level from Indian PE majors.
In his other previous roles as CFO, Prosenjit has been involved in restructuring, incorporating
Singapore headquarters for Quest Global and participating in the growth of the business from
USD 28 mn to USD 115 mn during his tenure in the company. As CFO, Prosenjit has attracted
capital from US based Private Equity companies and managed investment exits in respective
companies. His passion for teaching and sharing knowledge has also taken him to Institute of
Chartered Accountants of India for guest lectures.
Prosenjit is an alumnus of St. Xaviers College, Kolkata, India and a member of Institute of
Chartered Accountants of India.