VCWorld’s Most Influential Women list, presented on the occasion of International Women’s Day each year, is a celebration of their endeavour to bring about a positive impact in the startup ecosystem through their vision and backing they provide to startups across the country.

The Process

In order to arrive at this year’s influential names, BW (community name) and BW Businessworld had appointed an eminent advisory board, whose experience and expertise helped us in our final list. The advisory for this year comprised the editorial boards of BW Businessworld, BW (community name) and editors from BW’s sibling brands in addition to community representation from names such as Nikhil Vora, Founder and CEO, Sixth Sense Ventures; Mahendra Swarup, Managing Partner, Sigma Ventures and Prasar Sharma, BW Businessworld and Co-founder, VCWorld among others.

Our effort at VCWorld is to highlight the work being done across the country by so many individuals about whom people ought to know.

Here are the most influential women for 2023:

Anisha Singh, Founder, She Capital
Singh leads the women-focused venture capital firm She Capital. She is one of the mentors of the Startup India Programme, an initiative of the government of India. Singh began her career in the software industry as a Strategic Alliance Manager in the United States. She later collaborated with the Clinton administration on the Springboard project, which helps women entrepreneurs raise funds for their businesses.

Anjali Bansal, Founding Partner, Avaana Capital
Anjali Bansal is the Founding Partner of Avaana Climate Fund which manages Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund, investing in technology and innovation-led start-ups catalyzing climate solutions and sustainability and delivering exponential returns. Anjali Bansal is the Founder of Avaana Capital, and serves as an independent non-executive director on the public boards of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals India, Bata India Limited, Tata Power and Voltas – a Tata Enterprise.

Anjali Sosale, Partner, WaterBridge Ventures
Sosale leads India focused, seed to series A fund with a portfolio of over 31 companies and looking for more to join. Consumer tech and enterprise SaaS are her preferred sectors of interest. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Anjali served as a Vice President at Ernst & Young for a decade and was also a Senior Director of a Brand Accelerator program at Myntra.

Apoorva Sharma, Partner, Stride Ventures
Investment professional with a combined experience of about five years in the fields of Wholesale Lending and Investment Banking. Skilled in analysing companies, making detailed financial models and credit memorandums. Stride Ventures founded in 2019, it is a sector agnostic Venture Debt fund managed by veteran ex-bankers. The fund lends to growth-stage companies that are backed by institutional capital with a banking scope of lens. 

Bala Deshpande, Founder Partner, MegaDelta Capital
She has more than 23 years of professional experience, including 14 years in private equity. Her private equity experience spans the whole life cycle, from seeding new businesses to executing various exits such as IPOs, buybacks, strategic sales, and capital market divestments. Under her tenure, NEA India’s assets under management (AUM) have increased from approximately USD100 million to nearly USD350 million. Bala’s investment experience spans retail, media, IT&ITES, telecom, construction, and a few manufacturing-related industries.Furthermore, she serves as director in over 13 companies.

Harsha Kumar, Partner, Lightspeed India
Harsha Kumar, who has been with Lightspeed for three years, is the new champion for consumer, fintech, and SMEs. She has led investments in about 7 companies. She enjoys establishing teams, products, and businesses, and she has had the good fortune to be a member of some of the most exciting organisations, such as Ola. She is also fascinated by scale and is always on the lookout for new opportunities.

Lavanya Ashok, Trifecta Capital
Ashok has around 15 years of growth equity investing and investment banking experience.  She has deployed capital, coached portfolio firms through their journeys, and generated profitable exits for investors in both India and the United States.  She has led investments in firms such as Pepperfry, Azure, Cytecare and successful exits in Mahindra & Mahindra, Max India, and TVS Logistics.

Nandini Mansinghka, CEO and MD, Mumbai Angels Network
Nandini Manisinghka leads the Mumbai Angels Team. She has extensive expertise in the Investment Banking, Media, and Education industries, and she spent over 5 years in India with J.P. Morgan in key positions in the Investment Banking research division. She previously worked for the Times of India Group for almost 5 years before joining J.P. Morgan. She is also a Certified Financial Analyst with a professional degree.

Nupur Garg, Founder, WinPE
Nupur Garg is the founder of WinPE, a non-profit platform that encourages gender diversity in the field of investing. She is also a private equity and venture capital investor and independent director, as well as an expert counsel to large institutional investors. She worked for worldwide companies such as the World Bank Group’s IFC, Discovery Networks, and PwC. Garg now serves on the investment committees of three LPs (NIIF, DGGF, and the Government of India’s FFS managed by SIDBI), which invest in a number of PE-VC funds in India and around the world.

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder, Indian Angel Network and Founding Partner, IAN Fund
Padmaja is a nationally known significant participant in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, having co-founded several of the relevant institutions in addition to being an active Angel investor herself. Her operational experience includes huge corporations, mergers and acquisitions, and startups/early stage enterprises. She developed IAN from the ground up, creating it a unique institution in the world within a decade, with close to 500 investors from 12 countries and a portfolio of 135+ firms in 7 countries, covering 17 sectors, with operations in 6 cities and London.

Renuka Ramnath, Founder, MD, & CEO, Multiples Private Equity
Renuka Ramnath founded Multiples in 2009 with the goal of creating a platform to channel long-term funding to generate valuable businesses and successful entrepreneurs. Renuka is one of India’s most experienced private equity fund managers, with a complete cycle track record of investing funds received from worldwide institutions. Renuka serves as an independent director on a number of boards, including Tata Communication Limited (Chair) – the first woman professional Chairperson in the Tata Group of companies, Ultratech Cement Limited, and L&T Technologies Limited, in addition to being a director on the boards of Multiples’ portfolio companies.

Ritu Verma, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Ankur Capital
Ritu is one of the co-founders at Ankur. She worked on bringing innovation from the lab to the market for a decade in Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD. Verma is Board Observer in companies such as BigHaat India, String.

Roshini Bakshi, MD, PE, Everstone Capital
Bakshi oversees a wide portfolio of enterprises centred in India and South East Asia. As part of her job at Everstone, she is a nominee director on Everlife Pte and VLCC. She also serves as an independent director on the boards of two public businesses, Persistent Systems Ltd and JM Financial Products. She previously served on the board of Max Healthcare.

Bakshi has over 28 years of general management and marketing expertise in the consumer industries. She formerly served as the CEO and Managing Director of Walt Disney Company’s Consumer, Media, and Retail business for South Asia, where she established and built the company to more than $300 million in revenue.

Sakshi Chopra, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India
Under her leadership, Sequoia launched the Sparks program for female entrepreneurs.

Vani Kola, Founder, Kalaari Capital
She also mentors aspiring entrepreneurs and primarily works with technology startups in India. Kalaari Capital, Kola’s firm, has invested in over 50 startups in India’s E-commerce, Mobile Services, and Healthcare sectors. She has raised around $650 million and has investments in over 60 start-ups, including Flipkart Online Services and Jasper Infotech Snapdeal. Myntra, VIA, Apps Daily, Zivame, Power2SME, Bluestone, and Urban Ladder are among her key investments.

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