Sanaka Group

OUR CORE
Meet The Team
Discover the minds behind our strategic investments. With a blend of expertise, creativity, and commitment, our team is dedicated to turning visionary ideas into impactful realities. We’re more than just investors; we’re partners in your journey.

Shankar Narayanan
Founder

Mr Shankar Narayanan was formerly the Managing Director and Co-Head of the Asia Growth Capital team of Carlyle, a global PE fund, responsible for advising o...

Neeraj Bhatia
Partner

Neeraj Bhatia has 25 years of experience across investing and operating environments steering investment opportunities – striking a balance betwee...

Rumen Barjatya
Director

Rumen has 18 years of investment experience across Private Equity and Venture Capital funds, leading successful investments....

Akshat Patodia
Investment Analyst

Akshat has over 3 years of experience in assurance and transaction diligence. Akshat has worked in the assurance division at the EY Network (S.R Batliboi) a...

Bina Trivedi
Investor Relations

Bina has over 20 years of investment experience across independent and institutional PE funds. She represents ...

G Sivakumar
Director

G Sivakumar has around 30 years of experience in finance, compliance, business planning, and budgetary control. He has played an instrumental role in coll...

Girish Kulkarni
CFO

Girish brings over 17 years of comprehensive experience in finance, accounting, and budgetary control. His expertise spans financial strategy, risk management, and regulatory compliance, enabling him ....

Team

Shankar Narayanan
Founder

Shankar is one of the more experienced PE investment professionals out of India, and has been investing in private markets for over three decades. Many of his earlier investments are now billion dollar corporations.

Girish Kulkarni
CFO

Girish brings over 17 years of comprehensive experience in finance, accounting, and budgetary control. His expertise spans financial strategy, risk management, and regulatory compliance, enabling him ....

India Team (Advisory)

Neeraj Bhatia
Designated Partner

Neeraj Bhatia has 25 years of experience across investing and operating environments steering investment opportunities – striking a balance betwee...

Rumen Barjataya
Director

Rumen has 18 years of investment experience across Private Equity and Venture Capital funds, leading successful investments....

G Sivakumar
Director

G Sivakumar has around 30 years of experience in finance, compliance, business planning, and budgetary control. He has played an instrumental role in coll...

Bina Trivedi
Investor Relations

Bina has over 20 years of investment experience across independent and institutional PE funds. She represents ...

Shubham Gupta
Associate

Shubham is a finance and strategy professional, specializing in quantitative risk management and business strategy...

Akshat Patodia
Analyst

Prior to joining Sanaka, Akshat was with EY and worked on the audit of several large conglomerates,. Later at EY, Akshat worked in the transaction diligence vertical.....

Chandran K
Manager – Operations






  • Name: Shankar Narayanan
  • Designation: Founder
  • Education:
  • MBA from XLRI
  • BTech from IIT Delhi

Shankar is one of the more experienced PE investment professionals out of India, and has been investing in private markets for over three decades. Many of his earlier investments are now billion dollar corporations.

Shankar’s career path has tracked the growth of the Private Equity Asset Class in India and he comes with the unique distinction of having managed and turned around some of the investee companies as a CEO. His operational experience enables him to appreciate the growth prospects and scaling challenges across industries and the ability to strategize and navigate a fast evolving landscape.

Shankar’s investment experience spans across economic & business cycles and a range of industries including Technology, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Financials, Dairy and Manufacturing. Shankar’s exit experience also includes sales through Strategic, Trade Sales and Public Offers. Shankar’s representation on multiple Boards has aided development of Best practices, High Corporate Governance, Strategic opportunities and Direct Revenue drivers & growth.

  • Name: Neeraj Bhatia
  • Designation: Designated Partner (India)
  • Education:
  • MBA from IIM Ahmedabad
  • Bachelor of Technology – IIT Kharagpur

Neeraj Bhatia has 25 years of experience across investing and operating environments steering investment opportunities – striking a balance between financial attractiveness and execution challenges. Neeraj was formerly the President and Chief Business Officer at National Bulk Handing Corporation Ltd (NBHC), one of India’s largest companies in the agricultural commodities space that provide financing solutions to clients.

Neeraj began his career as an equity analyst with Peregrine Capital, an Investment Bank. Neeraj subsequently moved to Hathway Investments, a family office, where he was a member of the team that was mandated to build a diversified portfolio of private companies. Neeraj later transitioned to a senior operating role at Hathway Cable and Datacom, one of the investee companies.

Afterward, Neeraj moved to British Gas’ (BG) Telecom Business as part of the leadership team. Later Citigroup Venture Capital (CVCI), a PE Fund, facilitated an MBO and bought out BG’s Interests. Neeraj played a key role in close concert with the CVCI team to broaden the product offering and widen the geographical reach of the business. In 2011, when the senior team at CVCI spun off to set up Exponentia Capital, a mid-market growth PE fund, he moved in as a part of the founders’ team. In 2015, he moved to True North and from there to True North’s fully owned investment NBHC.

  • Name: Rumen Barjatya
  • Designation: Director
  • Education:
  • MBA from Symbiosis
  • Executive Program from ISB
  • B.Com from Delhi University

Rumen has 18 years of investment experience across Private Equity and Venture Capital funds, leading successful investments, shaping exit strategies and driving portfolio growth. His investment experience spans across sectors including technology, healthcare, skilling & education, consumer services & retail, food & agriculture, manufacturing, climate & circular economy. He has served on the Boards of several companies, such as Infinite Uptime Inc., Heuristix Digital Technologies, Ovum Hospitals, Lilac Insights, Transerve Technologies etc.

Previously he was with Kois Invest (a Belgium based firm with a focus on impact finance) leading investments in India and managing a multi-sectoral, early-stage fund with several sovereign funds as LPs. Prior to this he was with IIML investing from a growth-stage private equity fund with a corpus of $225m and helped manage investments from a $150m fund. Prior experience includes management and financial consulting. He holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration and Finance.

  • Name: Akshat Patodia
  • Designation: Analyst
  • Education:
  • Chartered Accountant (Rank holder)
  • CFA
  • B.Com from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

Prior to joining Sanaka, Akshat was with EY and worked on the audit of several large conglomerates,. Later at EY, Akshat worked in the transaction diligence vertical, conducting financial due diligence for various companies in the advanced manufacturing and infrastructure sector.

  • Name: Bina Trivedi
  • Designation: Investor Relations
  • Education:
  • Chartered Accountant
  • B.Com from Mumbai University

Bina has over 20 years of investment experience across independent and institutional PE funds. She represents the board of multiple portfolio companies, bringing valuable strategic insights and governance expertise.

In the past, Bina held a leadership role in operations to drive the successful turnaround of a portfolio company’s acquisition in the USA. She has also led capital raises with international and domestic institutions, family offices, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) through pooled vehicles.

  • Name: G Sivakumar
  • Designation: Director
  • Education:
  • Chartered Accountant
  • Cost Accountant
  • B.Com degree from the University of Madras

G Sivakumar has around 30 years of experience in finance, compliance, business planning, and budgetary control. He has played an instrumental role in collaborating with businesses to support their scale-up and expansion across different continents.

Sivakumar served as the Group CFO of Financial Software and Systems, a major payment systems company.

He was also the lead member of the team that raised capital from private equity investors across rounds of investment. Sivakumar has also facilitated the exit of a PE investor through a secondary sale process.

  • Name: Girish Kulkarni
  • Designation: CFO
  • Education:
  • Chartered Accountant
  • Executive Program from IIM Calcutta

Girish brings over 17 years of comprehensive experience in finance, accounting, and budgetary control. His expertise spans financial strategy, risk management, and regulatory compliance, enabling him to deliver effective oversight and strategic financial planning.

He serves as the Controller of Finance, Treasury, and Investments at Sanaka Capital Investment Managers. In this role, he plays a pivotal part in managing the firm’s financial operations.

  • Name: Shubham Gupta
  • Designation: Associate
  • Education:
  • MBA from Indian School of Business (ISB)
  • B.Tech from IIT Kanpur
  • MSc Finance and Investments, University of Bristol

Shubham is a finance and strategy professional. Prior to Sanaka, Shubham was in risk management roles at JP Morgan & Credit Suisse and in Commercial Real Estate strategy at the Lodha Group.

Shubham holds an undergraduate degree from IIT Kanpur, Msc. in Finance & Investments from University of Bristol, UK & has completed his Post Graduate Program (MBA equivalent) from Indian School of Business.