ah! Ventures

Harshad Lahoti

Don't go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Currently at the helm of three companies in the Financial Services & Consultancy space, creating and growing businesses is not new for Harshad. He made his beginnings as a Management Executive with Larsen & Toubro, where he was assessed to be a high level performer and selected for their esteemed Management Leadership Program. His passion for finance, however, called him to move on to creating his own investment advisory and wealth management company Intercontinental Investments (2005). Further, with his interest in investment banking and desire to help early-stage ventures, Harshad founded ah! Ventures (2009), Excelman Ventures (2012), STARup Summit (2016) and SMARTup Conclave (2017). In the past 15 years, Harshad has grown his ventures into reputed, self-sufficient businesses that fuel their own growth.

While his investment banking knowledge gives him an edge in evaluating businesses and investment opportunities, it is his extensive experience in creating super specialised, highly motivated teams and lean, optimised workflows and processes that Harshad is known best for. Harshad is known to be an astute problem solver and brilliant negotiator with the ability to think on his feet, while being meticulous and detailed in everything he undertakes. Among other things, he brings to the table the ability to create and build brands and bring about winning partnerships capable of handling whatever curveball the market throws at them. Harshad has invested in over 50+ early-stage ventures till date and is a regular speaker at many entrepreneurship events in India & abroad.

Besides his interest in finance & investments, Harshad is also deeply involved as a director with the Ajit Lahoti Charitable Foundation, one of Pune's leading charitable institutions helping Chronic Renal Failure patients minimize their hardships by better kidney disease management. He is a Fellow of Ananta Aspen Centre's India Leadership Initiative (aka Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellowship), a unique values-based leadership program designed to help leaders move from 'success to significance'; and is also a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Harshad travels extensively, loves yoga, poker & salsa dancing and lives in Mumbai & Pune.

Abhijeet Kumar

Working hard paves the way, working smart gets you there.

Graduate IIT Mumbai (2003 Batch)
Analyst with Deloitte for 1.5 years
Co-founder, Pronto Infotech (A technology company which has 50+ employees and has offices in Mumbai and London. Worked with many top Indian & International corporate in various sectors as our clients on their process & IT automation)
Co-Founder, ah! Ventures
Core team member of STARup Summit and SMARTup Conclave
Investor and board observer in 10 startups
40 under 40 young achiever's award by Business World
Investment committee member of SP-TBI NIDHI Seed Fund
Ex-Faculty at Prahlad Kakkar School of Branding & Entrepreneurship
Visiting faculty and Guest Lecturer at multiple educational institutes
Speaker at various platforms and forums
Judge at various pitch/demo days and startup events

Armed with a B.Tech from IIT Mumbai, Abhijeet worked with Deloitte Consulting as an Associate Consultant before moving on to found his own company, Pronto Infotech in the ITES space. Here, he faced and overcame the challenges that come with setting up an enterprise, and in the last 6 years, has created a successful venture with a multi-crore revenue stream. He has worked with numerous clients across industries and in various functional domains including Tax, Retail, HR, E-Commerce, Web, Supply Chain, Technology, Banking and others. Having consulted in both business and technical capacities, and with the extensive experience working directly and indirectly for various functional domains, Abhijeet has the ability to evaluate ventures across the board and help entrepreneurs with intelligent cost planning through optimisation of systems, processes and networks, as well as creating and achieving targets. With his wide network of professionals from various verticals like operations, finance, accounting, and marketing, Abhijeet is not only able to help stem temporary gaps, but also generate business.

Amit Kumar

Amit is a VC Investment Professional, CFO, Business Scalability Expert and a Finance Consultant focusing on Small & Medium Enterprises (SME). Currently Partner at ah! Ventures and also advising companies on investments in the startup and SME space.

Previously, he was Partner at A&A Business Consulting and Indian Institute of Learning and Development, where he lead the Consulting practice, strategic decision making and managed operations, driving the group towards profitability.

He has advised senior leaderships across MNCs and small businesses on improving operating margins and driving profitability. His expertise lies in the areas of Business Strategy, Risk Management, Audit, Systems & Processes and Fund-raising.

As the CFO of a B2B Ecommerce startup, he was involved in scaling up the business from a 4-member team to 300 employees and revenues of more than USD 50 Mn in a short span of year and a half. He also helped raise the first round of funding of USD 22 Mn in 2015.

In the capacity of a mentor, he has helped entrepreneurs incubate their ideas into businesses, formulating go-to-market strategies, launching products and ensuring they work on sustainable business models.

His expertise is hired by businesses that want to scale up, manage risk, reduce cost and grow more than industry benchmark.

He is a Distinguished Toastmaster certified by Toastmasters International, an international organisation focusing on Leadership and Communication development.

Amit is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a commerce graduate.

Mukesh Malik

A Business transformation expert and startup evangelist, actively engaged in innovations in BFSI, Retail, Wellness, entertainment and many more industries.

Post a corporate career in innovation and problem solving, he has been running a successful consulting practice (ProjectGK) now and has continued to work with corporates such as ICICI Prudential, TATA AIA, VLCC, PVR, Bar Code of India and many more organizations. A strong believer in defining and creating resilient organizations to create self sustenance culture.

He is also an active contributor to startup ecosystem through investments at ah! ventures and creating impactful ecosystem drivers for the startup support.

Amitabh Sinha

Cofounder & Chief Strategy Officer, meetingsandoffices.com | Code Breaker, Dcyphr |Ex Chief Executive Officer, SMEConfex |Ex Director, Start-Ups Council of India | Ex Director Finance & Investment, SME Chamber of India

Amitabh Sinha is a serial entrepreneur, start-up evangelist, advisor, mentor, ecosystem builder and facilitator active in the start-up domain since 1999.

In a career spanning more than 21 years Amitabh has worked across domains as diverse as Petroleum, Consulting, Chemicals, International Trading, Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, Brand Communications, Venture Capital, Financing and Industry representation.

He has been associated with SME Chamber of India, Start-Ups Council of India & Packaging Industry Association of India in honorary roles evangelizing industry, creating facilitating networks, expanding small industry footprint and representing small businesses.

Amitabh is a frequent speaker at various fora and talks on a variety of subjects including business logic, business building, scaling, funding and financing, professionalization, small business growth, organizational culture building and lateral thought. Amitabh also actively consults with businesses in a professional capacity on scaling, growth hacking, business strategy and customer experience.