About Nippon India
Alternative Investment Funds

Ashish has over three decades of experience across multiple facets of alternative investments, including private equity investments and exits, venture capital, real estate, bank turnarounds, and portfolio management. He has also managed several international funds for over eight years across different organizations.

Ashish has held key leadership roles in prominent investment management firms such as Centrum Alternatives, Tata Capital, and Cambridge Place Investment Management.

Ashish holds an MBA from Duke University, USA, and a Master of Commerce (M.Com) from the University of Mumbai.

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.

Raghavender is the Head of Sales and Business Development at Nippon India Alternative Investments. A seasoned professional in the asset management industry, he brings over 23 years of extensive experience across prestigious global institutions, including Citi Bank, HSBC Bank, and Nippon Life Asset Management.

Throughout his distinguished tenure of over 15 years at Nippon Life Asset Management, Raghavender has held multiple leadership roles across diverse geographies in India. In his current capacity at Nippon India Alternative Investment Funds, he leads strategic business development, client relationship management, and sophisticated asset allocation strategies within the alternatives sector.

Raghavender holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, combining a robust academic foundation with deep market expertise to drive institutional growth and client success.

Pradnya has 18+ years of experience in end‑to‑end fund management, covering ideation, structuring, launch, management, and scaling of alternative investment products across domestic and offshore markets. Her expertise spans PE, VC, Private Credit, Real Estate, Listed Long‑Only and Long–Short strategies across India, Mauritius, Cayman Islands, Ireland (UCITS), and GIFT City.

She is currently the Head – AIF Products at Nippon India Alternative Investments, overseeing the complete domestic AIF product suite and leading the launch of GIFT City funds.

Previously, at Nuvama Asset Management (erstwhile Edelweiss), she played a key role in building private market funds and establishing offshore structures including a UCITS Hedge Fund, Mauritius FPI platform, and Cayman SPC. Earlier, with ICICI Bank Ltd, she managed offshore structured products, scaling private banking distribution for HNI clients across the Middle East and South‑East Asia.

Rahul has over 17 years of expertise in equity research and fund management. He has extensively covered sectors such as BFSI, Capital goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and building materials, and has a strong track record of identifying profitable investment themes and stocks that have delivered substantial returns.

Rahul has previously worked with organizations like Abakkus Asset Managers, Morgan Stanley, Edelweiss, and Elara Capital.

Rahul holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from H.R. College (University of Mumbai), an MBA from Swansea University, UK, and an Executive Programme in Finance from IIM Calcutta.

Prashant has two decades of experience in equity research and fund management. In his previous role at Sundaram Alternates, he managed mid-cap and small-cap funds that consistently generated healthy alpha across market cycles. He has covered sectors like FMCG, consumer durables, building materials, retail, media, and automobiles in his previous stints.

His experience spans with organisations like Sundaram Mutual Fund, Emkay Global Financial Services, Standard Chartered Securities, HDFC Securities, and IDBI Bank.

Prashant holds an MBA in Finance from Bharati Vidyapeeth, University of Mumbai. He was ranked among the Top 16 consumer analysts by AsiaMoney in 2015.

Pradeep is a seasoned investment professional with over 25 years of experience spanning real estate investment management, corporate and project finance, private credit & equity, investment banking, and project management. Since 2011, he has been leading Nippon India Real Estate Investments, where he has played a key role in establishing and building the real estate investment platform.

Pradeep brings extensive end-to-end fund life cycle ( domestic and offshore ) experience across multiple market cycles and economic environments, spanning fund formation, capital deployment, portfolio management, and exits. He has developed deep expertise and strong track record in evaluating, investing in, and managing real estate projects across India, and has built relationships across the real estate ecosystem, including developers and key stakeholders.

Prior to joining Nippon, instrumental in anchoring and spearheading the real estate private equity business at ICICI Prudential AMC and held key positions at, SBI Capital Markets, ING Vysya Bank, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, and Gammon India.

Pradeep is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, where he completed his Mastes in Business Management and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, where he completed his Senior Management Program. He holds a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal and  advance executive leadership program certifications - Chief Investment Officer from Columbia Business School, Global CXO from Wharton Business School and Global Real Estate Leader from MIT and Maastricht University Real Estate Cente

Dipesh has close to two decades of expertise in real estate and credit investments. He has managed transactions across equity, credit, and structured debt, spanning residential, commercial, mixed-use, and warehousing asset classes.

Prior to joining Nippon, he has worked with HDFC group and ESR India.

Dipesh is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and completed his graduation from University of Mumbai.

Ashish brings over 17 years of experience in the Indian fixed income market, with a strong background spanning asset management, banking, and credit rating agencies. Before spearheading the creation of the Private Credit AIF platform at Nippon India Alternates, Ashish spent nearly nine years as a senior member of the Fixed Income Investment team at Nippon India Mutual Fund, where he developed deep expertise across investment research, portfolio management, and credit analysis.

Prior to joining Nippon India, Ashish held positions at DBS Bank India (a wholly owned subsidiary of DBS Bank Ltd, Singapore), ICRA Ltd. (a subsidiary of Moody's Ratings), and Global Analytics India (a subsidiary of Gain Credit Inc, USA).

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

Rahul is an experienced private credit professional with close to two decades of experience in the industry. His domain expertise lies in wholesale credit sourcing and structuring for large and mid-corporate clients across sectors, along with a proven ability to set up and scale wholesale credit operations.

Rahul was among the founding members of the Project & Structured Finance business at Aditya Birla Finance. He has a strong track record in the banking and private credit industry, and actively mentors teams to strengthen deal origination and credit management capabilities.

Rahul holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

Sachin has over two decades of experience spanning investment sourcing, due diligence, structuring of PE/VC investments, portfolio monitoring and support, fundraising, and financial modelling.

Sachin started the venture capital strategy at Nippon India Alternative Investments and is currently designated as Fund Manager - Venture Capital. He is responsible for fund raising, investing and managing portfolio of India centric growth stage directs and venture funds.

Prior to Nippon India, he co-founded, built and scaled an travel start-up focused on cruising, MyDreamHoliday, which was subsequently acquired by a market leader in the space. Prior to that, he was an investor with Ncubate Capital, a family office where he participated in incubating and supporting scale-up of consumer companies that were subsequently backed by marquee private equity funds. Prior to Ncubate, he was an investor at Nine Rivers Capital investing from its Fund-I in growth stage companies, primarily in manufacturing and engineering sectors.

Sachin has completed MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has also cleared all levels of CAIA, and is a CFA (ICFAI).

Ankit Agarwal has close to two decades of experience across venture capital and private equity investments, exotic derivatives trading, chip design, and entrepreneurship, including founding an edtech company.

Ankit has spent over fourteen years as part of the investment teams at ICICI Venture (one of India’s oldest AIF houses), PineBridge Investments’ Asia Fund, Enam Family Office and Nippon AIF. During this time, he was actively involved in investment sourcing, deal evaluation and execution, due diligence and structuring, portfolio monitoring and scaling, M&A execution, fundraising and exits. He also served as a nominee on the boards of several portfolio companies.

In 2020, he founded an edtech company that raised USD 2.5 million from Matrix Partners and angel investors. The company scaled successfully to over USD 1 million in ARR with a team of 100+ employees. He exited the business in 2022 through a strategic sale to one of India’s leading edtech companies.

Ankit holds a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi (2005) and an MBA from IIM Bangalore (2010).