Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner

Mandar is involved in the entire life cycle of the investment process at Kalaari. He actively sources new investment opportunities and evaluates them through a variety of lenses. "What I primarily look for is how the business model or the technology stacks up against the competition and if it has the capability to be an industry leader. Further, the promoter should have a winner's mentality and should be able to adapt his business to the changing dynamics in that particular industry" says Mandar. Post investment, Mandar likes to work closely with the portfolio companies.

Mandar has always been inquisitive by nature. Perhaps this trait has been instrumental in him winning numerous quiz competitions during his college days and also helps him in early stage investing. He enjoys the opportunity to interact and work with dynamic and talented entrepreneurs and partner with them in growth of the company. Further, understanding and analyzing different technologies, business models and sectors interests him a lot.

Prior to Kalaari, Mandar was a part of a US$ 60 Mn sector agnostic venture capital & early growth fund managed by Tata Capital Limited, the finance arm of the Tata Group. At Tata Capital, Mandar was a key member of the founding team responsible for conceptualizing, structuring and raising the fund which was focused on technology led innovations. Not only did he make multiple investments globally across different sectors but he also actively collaborated with portfolio companies in strategy formulation and initiatives resulting in business growth.

Before Tata Capital, Mandar worked in technology consulting in USA and India with Cognizant Technology Solutions where he led numerous projects which received accolades from the clients and the Cognizant management. He began his career with Tata Power Company Limited (Strategic Electronics Division) where he built complex real time software applications for the Indian army.

Mandar holds an MBA (Finance & Strategy concentration) from Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, USA and Bachelor in Computer Engineering from University of Mumbai.

Mandar is an avid sports fan and follows and plays quite a few sports. He loves to travel and is always eager to catch the latest good movie. Being inspired by his colleagues, Mandar has taken up running as a regular activity. "All my colleagues are fitness freaks and regularly run marathons. I plan to do that as well."