Navigating the Maze: Key Challenges and Opportunities in unlocking credit for New-to-Credit customers in India
Sandeep Chouhan is a senior banking executive known for his expertise in business transformation and technology management, currently serving as the Group Chief Business Transformation and Technology Officer at Network International.
With a career spanning over 34 years, Sandeep has garnered extensive experience in the financial services industry demonstrating his leadership abilities, deep understanding of technology, and track record of successful transformations across 33 countries across the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Sandeep has held prior leadership roles as CTO/CIO at Citi, Morgan Stanley and Barclays, and Group COO roles at leading Middle Eastern banks such as Mashreq, ADIB and CBQ, among others.
Sandeep is a seasoned business and leader with over 16 years of experience spearheading institutional growth across BFSI sector in India and international markets. He brings deep expertise across financial services with a strong focus on risk management, banking analytics, ESG frameworks and digital transformation.
Throughout his career, Sandeep has held various strategic roles at globally recognised organizations like Quantiphi, CRIF, Dun & Bradstreet, HCL and Wipro.
A distinguished alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Sandeep has completed one year senior management program in General Management and also holds a PGDM in Marketing & E-business from Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research.
Eshit brings experience across venture capital, fundraising, and finance operations. Before joining Cedar Hill Capital, he worked with Venture Catalysts, managing fundraising transactions worth over USD 20 million across SaaS, AI, Healthcare, and FMCG sectors, contributing to deal structuring, negotiations, and due diligence.
His earlier roles at Tech Mahindra, Innodata, and Convergys India strengthened his foundation in finance operations, reporting, and analytics. At Cedar Hill Capital, Eshit focuses on early-stage investments, driving sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio value creation.
He holds an MSc in Finance from NMIMS, Mumbai, and a B.Com. (Hons.) degree from Amity University, and has cleared CA Inter (Group 1).
Ganesh comes with past experience of working with startups in founder’s office roles where he drove strategic alignment, managed projects, created operational plans and supported marketing initiatives to strengthen brand positioning.
At Cedar Hill Capital, he works across key initiatives in fund investments, ideating deal-sourcing tools, research across FinTech areas, and working with portfolio companies to unlock value leveraging Cedar’s wider platform.
Ganesh holds an MBA from ITM Business School and a B.Com. (Hons.) degree from N.E.S Ratnam College, Mumbai.
Subit comes with almost 15 years of experience across the investment cycle in the fund business, from deal-sourcing to leading exits. He is also well-versed with the overall Financial Services business model and ecosystem, given his past role at Aavishkar Capital.
Before joining Cedar Hill Capital, Subit was with Aavishkaar Capital, a well-known Indian impact VC fund focused on Financial Services and FinTech, where he was responsible for deal evaluation, portfolio, and exit management. He represented the fund in various board roles, guiding and working strategically with the leadership teams.
Subit holds a PGDM diploma from IIM Calcutta and B. Tech degree from IIT Guwahati. He has attended the Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance program at Harvard Business School.
Murtaza is an Operating Partner at Cedar Hill Capital where he advises the fund’s FinTech thesis and goes on to add value to portfolio companies, given his 25+ years in the banking industry. He also plays an important role of leading LP engagement and relationships across the Middle East.
He is an Associate Partner at Cedar Consulting’s Dubai and India offices where he has over 25 years of experience in assisting global banking & government clients in a variety of strategic transformation areas. His Financial Services expertise spans across areas including Balanced Scorecard, strategy formulation, market strategy, business integration, process transformation, among many others.
Murtaza prior’s experience includes time at ANZ Grindlays and Dubai Islamic Bank. He has an MBA degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.
Niomi has a diverse educational background and is a successful business transformation and FinTech consultant. For the last two years, Niomi has played a crucial role in engaging with FinTech Labs members, understanding their needs, and aligning solutions to help them grow. She has worked on various consulting projects, focusing on Change Management, Diagnostic Workshops, Fee Income Strategy, and Vendor Selection for banks and institutions.
She holds a postgraduate degree in Management from ISME School of Management and Entrepreneurship, specializing in Finance with minors in Entrepreneurship. Additionally, she is a Chartered Accountant (Group 1) and has completed her MCOM from H.R. College.
Amit is a Partner and Co-Head at IBS Intelligence, where he advises leading global FinTechs, Banks and consulting firms on their market and competitive intelligence needs, and growth strategy. His clients include the world’s leading legacy and emerging FinTech companies including Temenos, Oracle, Finastra, Infosys, TCS, Sopra, ERI, Avaloq as well as leading banks such as Deutsche Bank, APS Bank, RBS, HSBC, Revolut, Starling Bank, Allica Bank, Aion Bank, and Credit Suisse.
Amit also co-chairs IBS Intelligence’s key intellectual properties such as the annual Sales League Table (SLT), Global FinTech Innovation Awards, and Digital Bank Awards. He is also a frequent speaker at major global FinTech conferences, including SIBOS, Money2020, Paris FinTech Forum, and London FinTech Week.
Amit holds an MBA from S.P. Jain and has completed executive education programs at London Business School and Harvard Business School.
Sahil comes with almost 15 years of experience in private equity, management consulting and Financial Services technology. He founded Cedar Hill Capital in 2023 when he realized that he was slowly becoming a FinTech and TechFin nerd and had missed multiple tech investment opportunities while he ran Cedar’s FinTech Labs.
Prior to founding the Cedar Hill Capital, Sahil almost a decade at Cedar Consulting and IBS Intelligence’s consulting and research practices where he worked with regional Banks and FinTechs on their technology strategies. In 2017, he co-created the Cedar-IBSi FinTech Labs, which quickly became known as the only such FinTech ecosystem in the region, and has been home to 60+ B2B FinTech/TechFin companies.
Sahil began his career on the investments team at Everstone Capital and DSG Consumer Partners, where he worked on the investment team across deals and industries, and played an active role on the “platformification” of Everstone’s various focus areas along with the fund’s leadership.
Sahil holds an MBA from London Business School, and a BS in Finance from NYU Stern. He serves as a member of the governing board of EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) Mumbai, a global network of leading entrepreneurs across industries. Sahil is also the former Chapter Chair and founding board member for YNG (Young Presidents Organization) Mumbai and serves actively as a NYU Stern Alumni Association Committee Member.
Angleen comes with 30+ years of experience across wealth management and strategic advisory. At Cedar-IBSi, she has worked closely and interacted with the leadership teams of FinTech lab members and played a significant role in their next phase of product, market, and customer growth. She also identifies and plans their future capital-raise requirements through the Lab ecosystem.
As Lab Director, Angleen will spend her time between Cedar-IBSi Capital (SEBI AIF) and the FinTech Lab, in identifying breakthrough lab members and their use cases, as they prepare to raise their first round of institutional capital.
Prior to Cedar-IBSi and the FinTech Lab, she possesses a strong track record of wealth management, IPO, and investment banking experience between India and the GCC via roles at RAK BANK and Seven Capital. She is recognized for facilitating RAK BANK’s largest deal and managing a portfolio of structured products with an average ticket size of $2-5mn across corporates like ICICI and TATA Group. She was also responsible for the bank’s expansion into the UK, Africa, and India.
Pallavi comes with 5+ years of experience in Consulting and Financial Services. She joined Cedar-IBSi Capital (SEBI AIF) after being an Associate Consultant in Cedar’s FinTech & Digital Transformation practice, where she worked on multiple engagements across technology transformations, FinTech program governance, and program management for large Banking clients globally.
Before Cedar, Pallavi worked with Ernst & Young (EY), where she actively participated in consulting and research for three key Private Equity Clients – Apollo Global Management Inc., Blackstone Inc. and Carlyle Group. Preceding this, she worked with Encore Asset Reconstruction company, where she assisted the CEO Office with Board engagements and growth and fundraising plans of the company. She also has prior experience with S&P Global.
Pallavi has completed her MBA from SP Jain School of Global Management and holds a B.Com. (Hons.) degree from the University of Delhi
Alan comes with 6+ years of experience across financial services, insurance, and consulting. He joined Cedar-IBSi Capital (SEBI AIF) after being a Senior Consultant in Cedar’s FinTech and Digital Transformation practice, where he spent his time evaluating and working with FinTech product platforms and the use cases they can bring to his banking clients.
Prior to Cedar, Alan worked at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, where he worked with FinTech platforms to enhance the AI capabilities of insurance underwriting processes. Before this, he spent time at JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, where he spent his time working with APAC hedge fund managers in corporate action operations.
Alan has completed his MBA in Finance from NMIMS Mumbai and holds a BSc. Statistics degree from Mumbai University.
Felipe is the Chief Information Officer and Management Board member at Revolut Bank UAB, Revolut group’s largest entity, operating in all 30 EEA countries, with 15+ million customers.
Originally from Spain, he started his career at Accenture in 1997, assisting with core banking transformation programs around the world, living in Colombia, Venezuela, Spain, Austria, and the UK. Upon moving to Santander UK in 2008, Felipe led the integration of various acquisitions and the launch of Corporate Banking. His next role was that of CIO for retail and business banking.
Then, in 2019, he moved to Finastra as Senior Director of Universal Banking, Global Services. In addition to pre-sales, he was involved in the implementation and ongoing maintenance of numerous core banking programs.
Felipe will play an active role on Cedar-IBSi Capital’s investment committee, in light of his extensive global experience in assessing and working with emerging and established technology companies.
Sumit comes with over six years of experience in FinTech consulting, program management, market research and partnership formulation. He has worked with global Financial services companies in their digital transformation journey, solving critical business problem statements through strategic partnerships. His expertise lies in identifying FinTechs that will solve problems for large organizations.
Prior to the Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab, Sumit was a part of the digital transformation team at Ageas Federal Life Insurance, where he conceptualized the embedded insurance partnership. Prior to which, he was with Startup Réseau as Head of FinTech Initiatives, where he focused on corporate innovation programs, conferences and community building, accelerators, and market access programs for large Indian clients.
His earlier experiences include MEDICI – Global Fintech Market Network, where he led the FinTech innovation programs across Southeast Asia and India, and Zone Startups India, where he set up corporate accelerator programs.
Sumit holds an MSc. Economics degree from Symbiosis International University.
Chetan is a Managing Partner in Cedar’s FinTech practice, and comes with 25+ years of experience in leading the technology transformation of banks across the region. Some of his financial services clients include Kotak, RBL, ADCB, ADIB, Mashreq, ENBD, Bank Dhofar, Bank Muscat, Barclays, among many others.
He is widely known as being a BankTech and FinTech thought-leader, serves on multiple global technology company forums, and is a frequent writer and speaker with international FinTech publications and platforms. His knowledge and understanding of Core Banking systems is also widely recognized.
Chetan has an MBA from Sydenham College, Mumbai, and has received his executive education from HBS. He is an Advanced Certified Scrum Master and is PMP certified. Prior to Cedar, 20+ years ago, Chetan worked with Tech Mahindra, Godrej & Boyce, and Larsen & Toubro.
Ramki is a Senior Partner at Cedar in the firm’s Financial Technology practice. He is an expert in technologies in areas of retail, corporate, transaction banking, payments, treasury, capital markets, wealth management, credit risk, compliance, corporate finance, cutting across conventional, and Islamic banking.
In his 25+ years of experience, he has led multiple banking and capital market technology transformation assignments across the region. In addition to this, he has also assessed, designed, selected & executed 25+ large banking & core platform programs across India, Asia, ME, and Europe.
Ramki is an MBA from Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai, and has done his GNIIT from NIIT. He is also a Cost Accountant from ICWAI. He has previously worked with Deloitte, Protiviti, Accenture, Oracle, Citigroup, ABN Amro and HDFC Bank.
Pradip Shah is a prominent figure in the Indian Financial Services sector, known for his instrumental role in establishing two of India’s leading financial institutions, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL).
Pradip’s contributions to the Indian financial services sector go beyond the establishment of HDFC and CRISIL. He has been actively involved in shaping policies, reforms, and regulatory frameworks, promoting the growth and stability of the financial system in India. Shah’s vast experience and expertise have made him a sought-after advisor to government bodies, financial institutions, and corporate entities.
He is also the Chairman of Pfizer India, a former senior advisor to the World Bank, and sits on the boards of multiple other corporations of repute.
Bobby Parikh is the Managing Partner of Bobby Parikh Associates, a boutique firm focused on strategic tax and regulatory advisory services.
Over the years, Parikh has successfully led the structuring of transactions for private equity funds, institutional investors, and business owners from a tax and regulatory perspective. He also works closely with regulators and policy formulators in providing inputs to aid in the development of proposed regulations and policies.
Parikh was most recently co-founder of BMR Advisors, a highly regarded tax, and transactions firm which he helped establish and run for over 12 years. Prior to forming BMR Advisors, Parikh was the Chief Executive Officer of Ernst & Young in India and held that responsibility until December 2003. Parikh worked with Arthur Andersen for over 17 years and was its Country Managing Partner until the Andersen practice combined with that of Ernst & Young in June 2002. Parikh led the Financial Services industry practice at Arthur Andersen and then also at Ernst & Young.