Surojit Shome

Surojit is currently Chairman, Samara Capital Group – India.

Prior to that he was with DBS Bank Group (Singapore) from 2015 till the end of 2025 and held several senior several positions including Senior Advisor. He was also a member of the Group Management Committee (GMC) of DBS Group, Singapore.

Surojit has over 39 years of banking experience across corporate & investment banking, capital markets and consumer banking. Before he joined DBS, he was the CEO of Rabobank in India. Prior to that, he set up and headed the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in India. Surojit also spent over 19 years at Citibank in various roles across wholesale and retail banking before joining Lehman Brothers at the end of 2006.

Surojit has a post-graduate management degree in Finance and Marketing from Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (Honours), Mathematics and Statistics from Presidency College, Kolkata. Surojit has also attended the Executive Development Program at The Wharton School in 2004 and the Rabobank Senior Leadership Program at the Harvard Business School in 2011.

Surojit is married to Dr Swaha Shome, a professor of Economics and they have a son and a daughter. He has keenly interested in golf, cricket and travel.

Sumeet Narang

Prior to founding Samara Advisors in 2007, Sumeet briefly worked at Goldman Sachs in New York in its Proprietary Investments Group. During 2001-04, he worked with Citigroup India across various functions in Delhi and Hyderabad. He has also worked with the Fiat group in Italy and India.

Sumeet earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar and John L. Loeb fellow. He also earned a Master’s in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM), where he was an Aditya Birla Scholar and a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, where he received a “University Blue” for outstanding contribution to the University Squash team, of which he was the captain.

Sumeet provides overall leadership to Samara Advisors and spends his time in strengthening the Samara brand amongst entrepreneurs, company managements, bankers and financiers.

Gautam Gode

Gautam Gode co-founded Samara Advisors in 2007. He leads investment evaluation efforts in some specific sectors, in addition to providing overall leadership and management to the firm.

Previously, Gautam was a Director with Citigroup’s Corporate & Investment Banking business in India, and over 13 years, led various parts of the franchise including the public sector and South India businesses.

He graduated cum laude from Princeton University with an AB in Political Economy and followed it with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

Gautam is also an amateur middle-distance runner and high-altitude hiker.

Manish Mehta

Manish Mehta is a Managing Director, Investments at Samara Capital and has been with Samara Capital since 2010.

Manish has led investments in the Consumer, Retail, Healthcare and Business Services verticals for the Fund. He serves on the board of Sapphire Foods, Iron Mountain India, Lotus Surgicals and First Meridian Business Services and was previously associated with Paradise Food Court, Ganga Kaveri Seeds, Thyrocare Technologies and Asian Institute of Gastroenterology.

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Manish worked with the Private Equity Fund at Lehman Brothers in New York. Before that, Manish was a Principal in a $10 billion multi-strategy hedge fund at Barclays Global Investors. Manish also briefly worked in Real Estate Private Equity at Grove International Partners (Soros Fund) where he was covering investments primarily in the hotel sector. Manish began his finance career with Lehman Brothers in 2001 in New York.

Manish earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School where he graduated with Distinction. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Transportation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Bachelors degree in engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee.

Vivek Chhachhi

Vivek Chhachhi is a seasoned private equity investor and board leader with 30+ years of investing experience, and currently plays a dual role as Managing Partner at CX Partners
and Chief Strategy Officer at Samara Capital, where he helps shape investment strategy and portfolio value creation across sectors. Prior to CX, he was a Director at CVCI (Citi Venture Capital International), where he spent 15 years leading and exiting investments across a broad range of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, IT-enabled services, financial services, infrastructure, and industrials. Over his investing career, he has been closely associated with building several marquee platforms, and a few of his notable investments include Mrs Bectors Food, Sapphire Foods, Thyrocare, Natco Pharma, and Ujjivan Financial Services. Vivek is an alumnus of JBIMS and St. Stephen’s.

Paurush Roy

Paurush Roy is a Managing Director at Samara Advisors since January 2008 and as an Investing Managing Director, he has worked on multiple investment and exit evaluations. He is progressively spending more of his time seeking to strengthen the Samara Advisors franchise on various fronts, including building deep and extensive proprietary networks, a financial intermediary ecosystem, identifying top-tier CEOs across industries, and improving the firm’s operating and risk management systems and processes.

Previously, Paurush worked with Deutsche Bank Global Markets in India as a Vice President during 2007-08, heading the coverage function for eastern India. Paurush worked with Citigroup Corporate & Investment Bank, during 2004-07 in the eastern India market as a senior banker and Vice President. Paurush started his banking career with HSBC India in 2000 and worked in various functions and markets from 2000-04.

Paurush holds an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow and received his B.E. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee.

Vikram Agarwal

Vikram Agarwal joined Samara Advisors in November 2007 and is a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the firm. As CFO, he is responsible for overseeing the financial reporting, compliance, legal, and governance work within the firm and all the funds advised by the firm. Vikram works closely with the deal teams on due diligence of target companies, structuring and negotiation of deal terms, sourcing deal level leverage, and closure of transactions. As an operating partner of the firm, Vikram also helps the portfolio companies in M&A activities, raising capital from banks, equity investors or from capital markets.

Previously, Vikram worked with PwC Delhi where he spent over seven years in the tax and regulatory practice.

Vikram is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a commerce graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi.

Abhik Mitra

Abhik Mitra joined Samara in April 2023 as Managing Director, Operations Group. Abhik works closely with the leadership of portfolio companies to drive transformation through operational excellence leading to accelerated value creation. Abhik has demonstrated transformational leadership abilities throughout this career, highlight being transforming SpotOn Logistics over a 11 year period by growing it multi fold and making it one of the leading road express logistics businesses in the country. Prior to SpotOn, Abhik turned around CEAT’s Sri Lanka business through an acquisition and put it in the leadership position with 50%+ market share.

Previously, Abhik has worked with organisations such as Hindustan Unilever, RPG Group, TNT India, Spoton Logistics, and Delhivery. Abhik is a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Varanasi.

Abhishek Kabra

Abhishek Kabra joined Samara Advisors in July 2008 and has grown from an Associate to a Managing Director within the firm.

Abhishek has investment experience across the focus sectors for Samara Advisors and currently leads the investment vertical for Healthcare, NBFCs & SFBs and Consumer – Personal Care and Apparels sector. He currently serves on the board of Nature’s Essence, Spoton Logistics, Sahajanand Medical Technologies and Lotus Surgicals. He was previously associated with Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, RBL Bank, Global Coal and Sharekhan.

Prior to this, Abhishek was in the Equity Investments team of Reliance Asset Management (now Nippon Life Asset Management) which had an AUM of over USD 20bn in 2008.

Abhishek is an MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai and a Master of Commerce from Mumbai University. He is also a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Anchit Gupta

Anchit Gupta joined Samara Advisors in May 2012 and is Managing Director, Investments in the firm.

He leads investments for the firm in certain sectors – Technology Services and Products, Pharmaceutical, Auto & Auto Ancillary and Media & Entertainment. He serves on the board of Cogencis, Oaknet Healthcare, SMS Integrated Facilities Management & Gamot (API Pharma platform) and is involved in More Retail Limited.

Previously, Anchit was at Kubera Partners and was involved in seven investments and two exits with more than USD100 million at work across sectors such as technology, media services, automotive ancillary, education and biotechnology. Prior to Kubera, he was an analyst with the corporate finance practice at McKinsey & Co.

Anchit has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Chicago and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Delhi University. He also holds an MS (Finance) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charter from ICFAI University, Hyderabad.

Mansi Goel

Mansi Goel joined Samara Capital in August 2024 as Managing Director for leading Fund Raising and Investor Relations.

Mansi completed her Bachelor in BA (Honours), Economics from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and Master’s in Business Administration from NMIMS, Mumbai.

Mansi has more than 20 years of experience in building and managing Investor Relations across Investor categories and Product segments. She has extensive experience in BFSI segment and has worked in different domains such as Project Financing, Corporate Banking, Merchant Banking and Debt Capital Markets. She has worked with organizations like SBI Capital Markets, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited. She also co-led fund raising for Edelweiss groups companies in India & Southeast Asia and IvyCap Ventures, a large homegrown Venture Capital Fund.

Throughout her experience, she has built a large network of both Domestic and International Investor relationships covering Banks, Financial Institutions, Multi Laterals and Family Offices / Corporates in India, Southeast Asia and Middle East.

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Mansi led the Fund Raising and Investor Relations at CX Partners, a mid-market PE firm.

Manish Kanojia

Manish is a seasoned finance professional with deep expertise in sales, business development, investor relations and has successfully forged strategic partnerships within the distribution ecosystem across banks and wealth institutions. Manish has a proven track record of over 20 years of building and scaling business development platforms, raising capital across family office investors and national distributors.

Manish has completed his Bachelor in Commerce from Sahjanand Vanijya Mahavidhyalaya, Gujarat University and Master of Business Administration in Sales and Finance.

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Manish served as National Sales Head(Sep 2022 to Sep 2025) with Abakkus Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd and lead Sales and distribution nationally overseeing AUM growth from 9kcr to 37kcr+. Prior to Abakkus Asset Managers Pvt. Ltd, Manish has worked with Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited, Principal PNB AMC and Kotak Mahindra AMC.

Nilay Pratik

Nilay joined Samara Capital in March 2016 and is a Director at the firm. He focuses on investment evaluation in sectors such as consumer, business services, financial services and chemicals sectors.

Prior to Samara Capital, he was with Aumentis Consulting, a management consulting firm. At Aumentis, Nilay worked on client engagements across consumer and retail space. For two years, he led the team which handled India operations of Mitsui Global Investments, the PE/ VC arm of Mitsui Corporation of Japan. He also worked for a year with Manhattan Associates in supply chain solutions.

Nilay holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode and a B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.

Akshay Sethuram

Akshay joined Samara Capital in 2024 as the Vice President Talent Acquisition & Management. In his role, Akshay is part of the Samara Operations Group and leads the Strategic Hiring and Key HR initiatives across the portfolio companies.

Prior to Samara Capital, Akshay was responsible for the Talent Acquisition function at Tata Projects, where he was overseeing the Leadership Hiring across the organization. His previous experience includes consulting with Korn Ferry, where he gained significant experience managing niche executive searches for clients across sectors including automotive, chemicals, logistics & supply chain, infrastructure, metals & mining, manufacturing, and engineering.

Akshay is a graduate from Mumbai University and has completed his MBA in Human Resources.

Sameer Kulkarni

Sameer joined Samara Capital in 2022 as a Vice President (ESG). He is responsible for conducting the ESG appraisal of prospective investments as well as the ongoing supervision of ESG performance of portfolio companies.

Prior to this, Sameer worked with MSCI where he was part of the ESG and Climate research team and focused on evaluating the emerging ESG regulations and the associated risks for companies. He started his professional journey as an ESG Consultant in 2012 and led ESG strategy and disclosure projects for clients across manufacturing, FMCG, energy and materials sector.

Sameer holds M. Tech in Energy Systems Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Raipur.

Monika Kalyani

Monika joined Samara Capital in 2023 as a Vice President and focusses on Healthcare, Logistics, Financial services, and Retail sectors.

Prior to Samara Capital, she has worked with FirstMeridian as the head of Strategy and Corporate Development. Earlier, she was an Investment Banker with Avendus in their Mumbai office, advising companies on their fund-raising, organic and inorganic growth plans primarily in the Digital and Technology sector.

Her last stint was with Flipkart focusing on both financial and strategic Investments.

Monika is a graduate from Delhi University and has completed her MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai.

Snehal Singhania

Snehal joined Samara Capital in 2020 as an Investment Associate in the firm. Prior to joining Samara Capital, he worked in the Investment Banking team at Avendus Capital for 2 years. At Avendus, Snehal primarily focused on consumers and business services sector, closing transactions in food & beverages and logistics companies. Snehal holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.

Arjun Singh

Prior to joining Samara Capital in 2020, Arjun worked with Kotak Investment Bank for 3 years. He was involved in M&A/Capital Market transactions across sectors like Industrials, Automotive, Consumer, Financial Services and IT. Arjun has completed his MBA from IIM Calcutta where he was a top-ranking student and finished his engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.

Pratik Shah

Pratik joined Samara Capital in May 2019. As a Financial Controller, Pratik is responsible for all accounting, compliance and reporting functions at Samara Capital.

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Pratik worked at PwC in its Assurance division for nearly 10 years. Pratik specialized in financial services and his clients included venture funds, non-banking finance companies, broking companies and banks. His area of work included statutory and tax audit, group reporting and internal controls review. He also has experience in US GAAP/ GAAS.

He is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Graduate in Commerce from N. M. College of Commerce & Economics affiliated to Mumbai University.

Dipali Goradia

Dipali R. Goradia assumed the role of Head of Internal Audit at Samara Capital in February 2024.

With over 13 years in the field, Dipali is a seasoned Internal Audit leader who has consistently demonstrated her proficiency in optimizing financial and operational efficiencies across diverse industries. Her track record includes successful leadership of audit teams, adept risk identification, and the implementation of robust control measures.

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Dipali played a pivotal role in the Internal Audit Division of Bayer Global, a German conglomerate with diversified business into healthcare and agriculture. In this role, she concentrated on enhancing financial and operational efficiencies, identifying risks, implementing robust control measures, and conducting compliance-related fraud investigations.

Dipali commenced her professional journey in 2011 with KPMG, majorly with Hindustan Unilever Limited – Home and Personal Care (as a client of KPMG) and subsequently worked with Essar Oil Limited. During this period, she led Internal Audit assignments for clients spanning manufacturing, FMCG, Oil & Gas and Service Sector industries.

Dipali holds a Chartered Accountant degree from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai University.

Sneha Ghuriani

Sneha joined Samara Capital in February 2022 as Manager (Legal and Secretarial) to strengthen Samara Capital’s legal, governance and compliance functions. She works closely with Company Secretaries of portfolio companies to build governance processes and drive secretarial compliances.

Previously, she has worked with Samara Capital portfolio companies – Witzig Advisory and SMS and led their legal and secretarial departments. She has also appeared before the Bombay High Court and handled arbitrations during her stints with law firms. She has got her articles published in various esteemed journals including Taxmann.com and Corporate Law Adviser magazine.

Sneha is a Company Secretary from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and is a law graduate from ILS Law College, Pune.

Shreyansh Agarwal

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Shreyansh worked with the Investment Banking team at Deutsche Bank for over a year where he was involved in M&A/Financing transactions across diversified industrials sectors including Automotive and Capital Goods. Shreyansh is a CFA Charterholder as well as a Chartered Accountant with an All India Rank 39.

Karan Mehrotra

Karan joined Samara Capital in August 2025 as an Investment Associate. Prior to joining Samara Capital, he worked as a Junior Associate at McKinsey & Company, focusing on growth strategy and market entry projects across the banking and pharmaceutical sectors. He has also worked with Bank of America’s Investment Banking team and at FTI Consulting.

Karan holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, where he was an Industry Scholar and SBI Merit Scholar, and a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from Shri Ram College of Commerce.

Akash Agarwal

Akash joined Samara Capital as an Investment Analyst in September 2025. Prior to this, he worked with the Strategy Consulting team at EY-Parthenon, where he was involved in commercial due diligence projects for private equity clients, as well as market entry and growth strategy engagements. Before that, he completed his articleship in Assurance at Deloitte. He has worked across multiple sectors, including manufacturing, telecom, and digital infrastructure.

He is a Chartered Accountant with an All India Rank of 28 and holds a B.Com (Honours) degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi University.

Dhruv Gajjar

Dhruv Gajjar is an Analyst at Samara Capital. Prior to joining Samara, he worked with Alvarez & Marsal in the Business Transformation Services practice, where he advised private equity clients on commercial and operational due diligence across sectors including consumer, industrials and technology services. During his time there, he worked on multiple buy-side and sell-side diligence engagements, developing market sizing models, evaluating growth drivers and benchmarking competitive positioning to support investment decisions. Dhruv holds a Dual Degree (B.Tech and M.Tech) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Dhimant Shah

Dhimant joined Samara Capital as a Finance Manager in July 2024. Prior to this, he has worked with Finance & Accounts teams with Kotak AMC for nearly 5 years and with JM Financial Private Equity for 7 months. His major responsibilities were in the areas of financial reporting, fund accounting and compliances.

He is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Graduate in Commerce from M.K. Sanghavi College of Commerce & Economics affiliated to Mumbai University.

Sonia Patil

Sonia became part of Samara Capital as Assistant Manager (Legal and Secretarial) in December 2024.

With around 9 years of experience in governance, secretarial, and legal compliance, Sonia has consistently showcased her proficiency in various corporate activities, including business takeovers and transfers, serving as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) lead, and addressing intricate secretarial and legal challenges. She has been instrumental in promoting good governance, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining legal integrity within organizations. Sonia collaborates closely with Company Secretaries of portfolio companies to establish governance frameworks and enhance secretarial compliance.

In her previous role, Sonia worked with SMS, a portfolio company of Samara Capital, where she led the legal and secretarial departments. She began her professional career at D. M. Sathe & Co, a practising company secretary firm, and initiated her corporate journey at a subsidiary of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council. She subsequently worked with the Maersk Group and Gumpro Drilling Fluids Private Limited. Her career spans various industries, including services, gems and jewellery, shipping and logistics, oil and gas, and facility management services.

Sonia is a qualified Company Secretary from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Mumbai University, and is a law graduate from SNDT University.

Richa Dua

With over 17 years of experience, Richa Dua brings deep expertise in corporate operations and administration. She began her career in the hospitality industry, working with renowned five-star properties like Radisson, Sahara Star, and ITC Maratha, where she honed her skills in client servicing, event coordination, and corporate management.

Richa holds a B.Sc. in Hospitality from Rizvi College and degrees in Office Management and Business Management from SNDT College, Mumbai. She completed her schooling at St. Joseph’s School.

Larisa Dabreo

Larisa Dabreo joined Samara Capital in January 2026 as an Executive Assistant, providing support to senior leadership team. She brings over 11 years of experience across Private Equity and Venture Capital, with a strong background in executive support, administration, and office management.

Prior to joining Samara Capital, Larisa worked as Executive Assistant and Admin at Xander Advisors India Private Limited, where she spent seven years supporting senior executives and managing administrative operations. She also served as Office Manager at Tenacity Ventures, gaining experience in operational leadership and stakeholder coordination.

Larisa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from St. Andrew’s College, Mumbai.