Girish Ramdas

Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making waves in the global digital publishing business. Since its inception in 2011, Magzter has crossed 88 million downloads from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide. He has more than 28 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses. He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the digital world. Girish's deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally. In 2024, Magzter was acquired by VerSe Innovation and he continues as the CEO helping to grow the business even further into the future.

He was voted the CIOL Technology Person of the Year for 2012 for his contribution to the global digital publishing business. He was invited to speak at the prestigious World Magazine Congress in Rome in 2013 to address the world publishers on digital publishing and its future. He was awarded the TiE Innovative Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2013 and was listed for the second time in the Fortune magazine's 40 under 40 list of global Indian Entrepreneurs. Magzter has been awarded the TiE “Billion dollar baby” award in 2014. Magzter also won the Best News & Magazine App Award by Global Mobile App Summit & Awards (GMASA) in 2017.

Prior to Magzter, he was the President of Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and Galatta Media. His duties included strategic marketing, partnership development, and monetizing content globally. DCI grew from a small team of 3 in 2000 to 300 by 2011 and was dealing with web, software and app development for clients globally.

In 2000, Girish also co-founded South India's largest entertainment portal www.galatta.com and published South India's first English language movie magazine in 2007 both of which continue to grow exponentially based on the strong foundation set by Girish during his tenure there.

Girish Ramdas was a State Rank holder in academics from Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Chennai and holds an Engineering degree from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai.

Fun facts: He has earned six Indian national gold medals in rifle shooting and holds the national record in one event. He runs 5 - 10 kms every day. He also practices yoga daily. He is an avid Tennis and Badminton player and occasionally plays golf and pickleball too!

Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan

Vijay is the Co-founder & President of Magzter Inc.

Vijay entered the IT and media world as the Founder & CEO of NTS, an IT services company offering integrated engineering solutions; design and development engineering, product testing, standards compliance and project management services, to global clients.

NTS merged with Dot Com Infoway (DCI) in June 2005 and Vijay became the Chief Technology Officer of DCI. As CTO, he managed the IT team; monitoring small to large integrated projects, architecture for complex web, mobile and systems applications and executing internal IT audits for compliance with industry-expected standards. He also served as Chairman of SEPG for the CMMI process.

In June 2008, Vijay initiated the Mobile Application Development and Marketing wing of Dot Com Infoway, called DCI Mobile Studios; a leading mobile application developer in India; creating and marketing mobile apps for iPhone/iPad, Android & BlackBerry. DCI Mobile Studios has numerous successful, user-favorite apps under its belt, having developed and marketed business utility apps, entertainment apps, gaming apps, movie-related apps and eBook apps to name a few.

In 2011, with a vision to impact the publishing industry with the growing mobile/tablet, Vijay co-founded Magzter Inc, currently the world's fastest growing digitalnewsstand and Asia's largest newsstand.

Endowed with a keen business intellect, Vijay has traveled all over the world dealing with C-level executives and clients for the past 15 years. His experience in IT and the media industry spans over 14 years.

Vijayakumar Radhakrishnan holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Madras University and a Master's degree in Management from the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, India. A deep passion for technology, innovative problem-solving skills and proficiency in the latest web and mobile trends has earned him the reputation of a result-driven technology leader.

Rajesh Raju

Mr. Rajesh Raju - Kalaari Capital Partners.

Rajesh is a Managing Director at IndoUS Venture Partners (IUVP). Rajesh brings over 10 years of financial services and investment leadership experience across technology, consumer services, and the media and entertainment sectors. Before joining IUVP, he spent nearly five years as an Investment Director at Peepul Capital, an early entrant into India's burgeoning private equity space. He helped lead the firm's foray into the consumer services sector, which led to some marquee investments in the retail segment. He led the entire lifecycle of sourcing to exit in MedPlus Health Services, one of the notable transactions in the Indian retail sector. He is often sought out to share his experiences and expertise in the retail sector and has participated in various forums, conferences and panels. He also led Peepul Capital's investments in the technology sector. He enjoys partnering with budding entrepreneurs to build companies and has also had experience working with troubled companies in their turnaround efforts.

In addition to his India investing experience, Rajesh has six years of experience in investment banking, equity research and private equity in the U.S. at Merrill Lynch, Robert W. Baird & Co., and SilverYoung Partners respectively. He has eight additional years of operating experience in the technology sector, including roles that span strategic alliances, sales and marketing strategies, engineering, and M&A through his service at Sybase Inc.

Rajesh earned a Mechanical Engineering degree from BITS-Pilani, India, a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Marquette University, USA and an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago (Booth School of Business). He heads the Booth alumni chapter in Hyderabad and he is a part of Booth's India Alumni Club leadership team. He is a charter member of TiE Hyderabad and a founding member of E&Y's Hyderabad CFO Forum. He has been an active participant and a steering committee member of TiE-ISB Connect and has helped with the formation of Hyderabad Angels.

Michele Chong

Ms Michele Chong is Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at Cuscaden Peak Investments. She is a mergers and acquisitions specialist with over 20 years of buy-side and sell-side investment experience across the Asia Pacific region at several SGX listed companies. In her current role, she is responsible for driving the M&A initiatives for the group through expansion into the property, aged care and digital sectors, as well as capital recycling and divestments of non-core businesses.

Apart from Magzter, Michele has served on the boards of various subsidiaries and associate companies of Cuscaden Peak Investments. Current and past directorships include Constellar Holdings (events), The Seletar Mall, Invest Learning (education), Japan Aged Care, Straits Capital Investments (corporate venture arm), Kyosei Ventures, ClickTRUE (digital marketing consulting group), and Quotz Taiwan (online car auction platform).

Michele holds a Bachelor of Accountancy (Honours) and a minor in Banking & Finance from Nanyang Technological University. She is a member of Mensa Singapore.