About Nippon India
Alternative Investment Funds

Mr. Ashish Chhugani holds an MBA from Duke University, USA, and completed his M.Com from the University of Mumbai. With over three decades of experience in various aspects of alternative investments, including private equity investments and exits, venture capital, real estate, bank turnarounds, and portfolio management, he brings a wealth of expertise to the table. Additionally, Mr. Chhugani has successfully managed numerous international funds for over 8 years across different organizations.

Throughout his illustrious career, Mr. Chhugani has held leadership positions in esteemed investment management firms such as Centrum Alternatives, Tata Capital, and Cambridge Place Investment Management. Throughout these stints, he has consistently spearheaded multi-strategy alternative asset management businesses to success.

Mr. Aashwin Dugal is a seasoned finance and sales professional with over two decades of extensive experience in the Banking and Asset Management industry. With a strong track record in both B2B and B2C segments of the Mutual Fund sector, he brings a wealth of expertise to the table.

Throughout his career, Aashwin has demonstrated his proficiency in managing institutional, retail, and banking/wealth portfolios. His tenure of approximately 16 years at Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited (formerly Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Limited) saw him play pivotal roles in managing the West and North India markets as Zonal Head, in addition to holding various portfolios at the Corporate Office.

Prior to his tenure at Nippon Life, Aashwin held significant roles at esteemed institutions such as TATA AMC Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, and ING Investment Management Pvt Ltd. At TATA AMC Ltd, he led the team as Regional Vice President – North Zone.

In his most recent stint at Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited, Aashwin has served as Co-Chief Business Officer, where he successfully oversaw the institutional and wealth/private banking businesses.

Rahul has joined us as the Fund Manager for all the equity Alternative Investment funds managed by Nippon Life India AIF Management Limited. He has over 14 years of experience in the field of Equity Research and Fund Management. He is an equity market veteran with experience in successfully identifying favourable long-term themes and stock ideas, as well as tactical bottom-up ideas. His expertise spans across diverse sectors such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, building materials etc. He has a proven track record of identifying unique themes and stocks, yielding superior risk adjusted returns.

During his long career he has closely watched and tracked the market across various cycles. He has been actively involved in designing various frameworks for stock selection and carrying out in depth analysis. He has been demonstrating diverse capability across both buy and sell side. He has a unique ability to combine proficient qualitative analysis with a quantitative data-driven approach to equity research.

He has imbibed the strengths and wisdom from the several organizations and teams that that he has worked with, which has equipped him with strong interpersonal skills, leadership prowess, and a plethora of transferable skills that he brings with him to Nippon India AIF as he continues to excel in portfolio management and investment analysis. He has joined us from Abakkus Asset Management, where he was independently managing Flexicap fund for the company and was responsible for designing and implementing investment processes, leading a team of senior analysts, conducting periodic portfolio management reviews. He has also previously worked with renowned organizations including Morgan Stanley, Edelweiss, and Elara Capital.

Rahul holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from H.R College (Mumbai University), an MBA from Swansea University (UK), and an Executive Finance certification from the Indian Institute of Management (Kolkata).

Prashant has joined us as the Fund Manager for all the equity Alternative Investment funds managed by Nippon Life India AIF Management Limited

Prashant comes with 19 years of experience in Equity Research and Fund Management during which he has actively covered sectors like FMCG, Consumer durables, Building materials, Retail, Media & Auto. He has a special affinity for Mid & Small caps. In his previous stint at Sundaram Alternates, he used to manage the Mid-cap fund and a Small-cap fund, which have generated healthy alpha across time periods.

He has worked with several premier institutions like Sundaram Mutual Fund, Emkay Global financial services, Standard Chartered Securities, HDFC Securities and IDBI Bank in his previous stints

He is an MBA – Finance from Bharti Vidyapeeth, Mumbai University and he was among the top 16 rated Consumer analysts by Asia Money in 2015.

With over 22 years of comprehensive experience spanning Real Estate Investment Management, Corporate and Project Finance, Investment Banking, and Project Management, Mr. Pradeep Khanna has been a seasoned leader in the industry. Since 2011, he has spearheaded Nippon India Real Estate Investments, playing a pivotal role in establishing and nurturing the Real Estate investment function. Notably, he was instrumental in pioneering the setup and anchoring of the Real Estate Private Equity business in his previous organization.

Mr. Khanna boasts a diverse skill set covering the entire lifecycle of funds, from inception to exits, and maintains robust relationships with developers. His extensive experience includes evaluating, investing, and managing real estate projects across India. A graduate of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur with a Master’s in Business Management and a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, Mr. Khanna brings a blend of technical acumen and strategic insight to his role.

Prior to joining Nippon Life India, he has held key positions at ICICI Prudential, SBI Capital Markets, ING Vysya Bank, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, and Gammon India, where he has significantly contributed to the entire industry landscape.

Mr. Ashish Jalan currently serves as the Co-Fund Manager, Credit Investments for the Private Credit practice at Nippon India Alternative Investments. He oversees transaction evaluation, deal structuring, investment strategies, fund raising initiatives, and portfolio management. With nearly 15 years of comprehensive experience in domestic credit markets, Mr. Jalan brings a wealth of expertise acquired across asset management, banking, and credit rating agencies.

Prior to spearheading the credit AIF practice, he held pivotal roles within the Fixed Income Investment team at Nippon India Mutual Fund for close to nine years. His tenure at Nippon India allowed him to hone his skills and insights into various aspects of investment management.

Before joining Nippon India, Ashish gained valuable experience at DBS Bank, ICRA Ltd., and Global Analytics, enriching his understanding of financial markets and credit assessment methodologies.

Ashish is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Finance) from SPJIMR, Mumbai. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.

Mr. Rahul Apte currently serves as the Co-Fund Manager of the Private Credit practice at Nippon India Alternative Investments. With over 16 years of extensive experience in wholesale debt businesses, Rahul brings a deep understanding of all facets of the deal life cycle management, including deal sourcing, client development, credit assessment, monitoring, and managing exits.

Before joining Nippon India, Rahul played a pivotal role as one of the founding members of the Project & Structured Finance Business at Aditya Birla Finance. During his tenure, he was instrumental in scaling up the assets under management to over $2 billion. Rahul also spearheaded the NBFC's expansion into the Emerging Clients segment as the Business Head.

Rahul holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. He furthered his education with an MBA in Finance & Marketing from Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

Mr. Sachin Bid currently serves as the Fund Manager for Venture Capital at Nippon India Alternative Investments, overseeing fund raising, investment strategies, and portfolio management for India-centric early-stage technology ventures. He plays a pivotal role in guiding the investment decisions and serves on the advisory boards (LPAC) of several venture funds.

Before joining Nippon India, Mr. Bid co-founded, developed, and successfully scaled a pioneering travel startup, MyDreamHoliday, with a specialized focus on cruising. The venture was later acquired by a prominent market leader in the travel industry.

Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, Sachin excelled as an investor at Ncubate Capital, a distinguished family office, where he played a key role in incubating and fostering the growth of consumer companies from inception to achieving significant monthly revenues. These ventures managed to garner attention from marquee private equity funds.

With a background in finance and investments, Sachin's expertise extends to his tenure at Nine Rivers Capital, where he contributed to investments in early growth-stage companies, particularly in the manufacturing and engineering sectors. His professional credentials include membership in the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) association, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification from ICFAI, and an MBA in Finance from IBS Mumbai.

Ankit currently serves as the as the Fund Manager for Venture Capital at Nippon India Alternative Investments, overseeing fund raising, investment strategies, and portfolio management for India-centric early-stage technology ventures.

He has over 17 years of experience across venture capital and private equity investments, exotic derivates trading, chip designing and as a founder of an Edtech Company

He was part of the investment team at ICICI Venture (one of India's oldest AIF house), PineBridge Investments' Asia Fund and Enam Family office for 12+ years where he was involved in Investment Sourcing, Deal Evaluation, Diligence & Structuring, Portfolio Monitoring & Scaling, executing M&A, Exits and Fund raising. He was also the funds’ nominee on the Boards of the portfolio companies.

He had founded an edtech company in 2020 which had raised $2.5mn from Matrix Partners and angel investors. The company had successfully scaled to over $1mn ARR and 100+ employees. He exited the company in 2022 via an IP sale to one of the largest Ed tech companies in India

He has done his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi (2005) and MBA from IIM Bangalore (2010)