Leadership at the core of transformation—empowering agriculture at Samunnati.

Anil Kumar SG is the Founder & Non-Executive Chairman of Samunnati. His passion to bring resounding impact in the agri ecosystem led to the establishment of India’s largest enterprise, Samunnati. His vision was translated to Samunnati’s mission, which is to create an open agri-network to unlock the Trillion dollar plus potential of Indian agriculture with smallholder farmers at the center of it.

Anil has close to three decades of experience in the areas of Rural, Retail and Agri Banking. Anil’s professional journey has lent him an understanding of Indian smallholder farmers. Prior to Samunnati, Anil was the Co-Founder & Trustee of IFMR Trust and the CEO of IFMR Rural Channels. Anil holds a Masters in Management from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Symbiosis Institute of Management, Pune and a graduate degree in Humanities from Osmania University, Hyderabad.

A global business leader, Suresh brings over 30 years of expertise in Banking, Payments, and Fintech, having held key leadership roles at global banks, Infosys, and FSS Solutions. Most recently, he served as CEO of Wibmo, a global full stack PayTech Platform company acquired by Naspers-backed PayU. With deep expertise in technology, platform development, and financial services, he will drive Samunnati’s digital transformation, spearhead innovations, and strengthen market linkages through SAIL, scaling technology-led solutions for the agri ecosystem.

Mr. Krishnan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant and has over 40 years of multi-industry experience spanning strategy and operations in organizations like Airtel, RPG Group, Murugappa Group etc., and brings financial acumen with a keen sense of entrepreneurship to business. He has built wide experience and knowledge enabling the identification of business scenarios, finding turnaround solutions, nurturing and growing businesses and has handled many startups and helped them scale into multimillion businesses.

Padma Chandrasekaran has over 30 years of experience as an Executive, Entrepreneur, Board Member in the for-profit and philanthropic sectors in India and globally. She has been on the advisory Board and Investment Committees of several Venture Capital Companies. She is associated as a Director/Advisor with Archean Chemicals Ltd, Tyger Capital Private Limited, PNB Metlife India Insurance Company Limited, Health Sensei India Private Limited and SKYFI Education Labs Private Limited. Padma has also authored several highly cited peer-reviewed publications in academic journals such as The Lancet and the British Medical Journal.

Jyotsna Krishnan is a Managing Partner at Elevar Equity. She leads Elevar’s investing strategy and priorities in India, and the investing team that is based in Bangalore. Jyotsna has ~20 years of work experience spanning banking, retail financial services, strategy, business finance, sales and operations, business intelligence and training and development. She has closely partnered with entrepreneurs building transformational business models in sectors such as agriculture, MSME services, affordable education and quality healthcare. Jyotsna’s favourite time is spent in the field, gathering customer insights from the end
customer, the Entrepreneurial Households, and connecting them with founders and the world of capital. Jyotsna has also co-founded EPIC World with the goal of helping build enduring companies to serve Entrepreneurial Households.

Mahendran Balachandran has been venture investing since 2005 and brings with him two decades worth of experience of business leadership in technology companies, including Apple. He holds a management degree from IIM Bangalore and a B.Tech degree from NIT Warangal. He is a lead investor and serves on the board of various companies engaged in the Healthcare and Technology sector. Prior to venture investing, he was the Country General Manager of Apple, India; Chief Operating Officer of CoSystems (Telecom & Datacom Company); and the General Manager of Tektronix India.

With over 15 years of experience in private equity and investment banking, Akshay leads responsAbility’s efforts in Asia Pacific for private equity investments in consumer (food) and agriculture in the mid-market range. Prior to responsAbility, he worked for three years at a mid-market, sector-agnostic private equity fund, and made four growth equity investments at IFCI Venture Capital Funds Ltd. He also has three years of experience in investment banking (equity capital markets), doing public market transactions while working for leading domestic investment banks, including Kotak Mahindra Bank.