Aarin Capital is a proprietary venture fund that invests in technology-intensive businesses in life-sciences & healthcare, education and other potentially large India-centric or India-first market opportunities
Our Philosophy and Investment Thesis
Aarin Capital seeks to create long-term value by partnering with knowledgeable, adept and passionate founder teams who aim to transform business leveraging technology. We complement their zeal with our experience to facilitate the journey to build large valuable enterprises. Technology and differentiation are key to the businesses that we invest in. We aim to fund companies that seek to build sustainable and profitable value propositions right from their inception.
Our support typically includes providing strategic advice and extending our networks to investees relating to:
- Validating strategy and developing a customer-centric focus
- Assisting profitable growth – increasing revenue while optimizing costs
- Facilitating scalability across geographies
- Optimizing free cash-flows
- Bolstering governance and compliance
Aarin also invests in entrepreneurial fund managers with investment theses that complement Aarin’s investment areas. The objective is to create and nurture an expansive platform of investment opportunities that broaden the access into the Indian start-up ecosystem.
Meet the team
Dr. Ranjan Pai
Ranjan is a Co-Founder of Aarin Capital. Ranjan, in his own right, is a successful entrepreneur who established Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) with a view to build world-class businesses in Healthcare, Life Sciences and Education & Education Services.
He incubated Manipal Global Education Services, a leading global education and education services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. The company addresses the entire learning life cycle, covering both on-campus and campus-independent graduate and post-graduate studies, vocational skill development, corporate training and systemic services. Ranjan conceptualized the transformation of Manipal Hospitals into a leading for-profit multi-specialty healthcare chain in India. He set up Stempeutics to undertake cutting-edge research in stem cell therapies. These companies are run by professional management teams and have been funded in part by marquee strategic and financial investors.
Ranjan has incubated or has been an active financial investor in several start-ups. His investment track record includes several exceptional exits. Co-founding Aarin Capital is another step in realizing his ambition to actively engage with new ideas and dynamic entrepreneurs in life sciences, health care and training/skill augmentation.
A medical doctor by qualification, Ranjan graduated from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and proceeded to study Hospital Administration in the United States.
TV Mohandas Pai
Mohan is a Co-Founder of Aarin Capital. Mohan is also Chief Advisor to the Manipal Education and Medical Group, and serves on the Board of several Group Companies.
Until June 2011, Mohan was a Member of the Board of Directors of Infosys and the Head of Administration, Education & Research, FinacleSM, Human Resources and the Infosys Leadership Institute. He joined Infosys in 1994 and served as a Member of the Board since May 2000. Mohan was the Chief Financial Officer from 1994 to 2006. In 2006, he voluntarily demitted the office of CFO to lead efforts in the areas of HR and Education & Research.
As the CFO, he played a strategic role in transforming Infosys into one of the world’s most respected software services companies. He played a key role in branding the company among the investor community and enhancing transparency and disclosure levels. Mohan was an integral part of the Infosys team that enabled the first listing of an India-registered company on NASDAQ and the first sponsored secondary offering of American Depositary Shares by an Indian company.
He also formulated the country’s first publicly articulated company financial policy. The Infosys Annual Report, under his supervision, has won the top awards consistently from the Institute of Chartered Accountants and from the South Asian Federation of Accountants. Mohan was voted ‘CFO of the Year’ in 2001 by IMA India. He won the ‘Best CFO in India’ award from Finance Asia in 2002, and ‘Best Chief Financial Officer in India’ in the Best Managed Companies poll by AsiaMoney in 2004.
Mohan has been active in working with regulators to improve the business ecosystem. He was a Member of the Kelkar Committee, constituted by the Ministry of Finance, GoI, for reforming direct taxes. He also works with Central and State governments in the fields of education, IT and business.
In 2000, he spearheaded the foundation of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, Bangalore, to start a mid-day meal program for school children. Today, the mid-day meal program feeds over 1.2 million children across seven states in India. The program aims to feed 5 million children by 2020.
Mohan holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore, and a bachelor’s degree in law (LLB) from Bangalore University. He is also a fellow member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
Venkatesh K
Venkatesh (“KV”) has over 2 decades of experience in capital raise, deployment and management. He is an engineer (UVCE) and MBA (XIMB).
KV has previously worked for a family office in Bengaluru as a Fund Manager and managed several investments ranging from seed stage to Series A across various sectors.
His earlier investment banking experience included stints at SBI Capital Markets, Cazenove and a boutique corporate finance firm.
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