Investcorp's AI SPAC

Rishi Kapoor has served on our board of directors since March 10, 2021. Mr. Kapoor has been the Co-Chief Executive Officer at Investcorp since 2015. He oversees the Firm’s private equity businesses in North America and India, as well as the real estate, credit management, absolute returns and strategic capital businesses globally.

He has held several leadership positions at Investcorp, including Senior Internal Auditor, Head of Applications Development, Head of Business Analysis, Planning and Reporting and Head of Financial Management. He was Investcorp’s Chief Financial Officer until 2015. He joined Investcorp in 1992 from Citicorp, where he spent four years as a project manager in Citicorp’s systems consulting subsidiary for global financial institutions. He holds a B. Tech in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, and an MBA from Duke University.

Mr. Kapoor is a member of Duke University’s Middle East regional advisory board. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for National Bank of Bahrain, Gulf Air Group, Bahrain Airport Company and Gulf Aviation Academy. In 2019, Mr. Kapoor was recognized by Forbes Middle East as one of the top 10 Indian executives making an impact in the Middle East, and Top CEO Middle East recognized Mr. Kapoor as one of the top CEOs in the GCC financial services and investment sector.

Kunal Bahl will serve on our board of directors following the completion of this offering. Mr. Bahl is the CEO and Co-founder of Snapdeal.com — India’s leading, value e-commerce marketplace. The company has raised capital from leading global investors such as Softbank, Temasek, Blackrock, Mr. Ratan Tata, Premji Invest, among others.

Mr. Bahl is also an active early-stage investor through Titan Capital, having invested in 150+ technology companies in India, US and South East Asia, across consumer internet, fintech, direct to consumer brands, AI and deep-tech. Some of his notable investments include Ola Cabs, Razorpay, Urban Company, Shadowfax, Mamaearth, among others. Previously, he has also worked with companies such as Deloitte Consulting and Microsoft in the U.S.

Mr. Bahl is an engineer from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a business degree from The Wharton School, where he was part of the prestigious Management & Technology program. He has also been serving on the Board of Governors of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a leading economic think- tank based in New Delhi, since 2015. He is also a NASSCOM Executive Committee since 2019.

He is the current Chairman of CII National Committee. He serves as an Independent Director on the board of Piramal Enterprises Limited, a leading publicly listed India pharma and financial services conglomerate. He is also a part of the National Startup Advisory Council, a Government constituted group to advise on promoting the Indian startup ecosystem. He has been the recipient of various awards including Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Startup) (2014), Fortune Global 40 under 40 (2014), The Economic Times Entrepreneur of the Year (2015), The Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership (2018), and The Economic Times Comeback Award (2019), among others.

Girish Vanvari will serve on our board of directors following the completion of this offering. Mr. Vanvari is the Founder of Transaction Square — a tax, regulatory and business advisory firm in India — where he has worked since 2018. He has over 27 years of consulting experience across multiple leading firms. He previously worked over 13 years with KPMG where he was the National Leader for Tax in his last serving role and part of the India Leadership Team at KPMG. In his role, he interacted extensively with business owners and leaders across sectors in India and overseas.

Prior to KPMG, he was at Arthur Andersen for over a decade. He has worked with many large multinationals and Indian promoter companies across many sectors advising them on various business, tax and regulatory issues. Mr. Vanvwari holds a Chartered Accountancy degree in India and a Bachelor’s degree from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics.

Ashwini Asokan will serve on our board of directors following the completion of this offering. Ms. Asokan is the CEO and Co-founder of Mad Street Den (MSD) — one of the world’s foremost AI startups ushering in an era of AI-native and AI-first businesses around the globe. The company’s horizontal AI platform, Blox, is helping some of the world’s largest businesses across retail, healthcare, media, and finance industries to meaningfully adopt AI in their day-to-day operations.

Ms. Asokan is known for her work in building some of the world’s top AI talent. She is also an active early-stage investor with investments spanning deep tech, SaaS, life sciences and women-led businesses, besides also investing in early-stage VC funds. Ms. Asokan holds several patents across disciplines and a range of awards, including Fortune’s 40 under 40 and Forbes women in power 2021.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Ms. Asokan’s work over the last two decades sits at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Product Design and human-centric systems and processes. She has spent much of her career working on bringing AI from the Science and Tech labs of the world, applied meaningfully and made accessible to people across the globe. Prior to starting her own company, Ms. Asokan led Mobile Innovation efforts as part of Intel Labs in California, driving research and development of AI & mobile products.

Manpreet Singh will serve on our board of directors following the completion of this offering. Mr. Singh, CFA, is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Singh Capital Partners (SCP), a multifamily office that directs investments into venture capital, private equity, and real estate. SCP invests capital on behalf of Fortune 500 CXOs, unicorn founders, and operators and has executed investments in North America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Singh has made over 50 private investments over the last decade including Baazarvoice, Alibaba, Uber, Spotify, Duo, PayTM, Impossible Foods, Cohesity, DocSend, SoFi, Carta, SpaceX, MindBody, Robinhood, and Postmates.

Prior to starting SCP, Mr. Singh was the Co-Founder and President of TalkLocal, a venture backed local services marketplace that serviced customers in 49 states and placed over 2 million calls to contractors. Prior to TalkLocal, Mr. Singh was the longest tenured employee at Profit Investment Management (PIM), a DC- based firm where he helped to grow assets under management from $20 million to over $2 billion through various roles in trading, marketing, research, investing, and operations. He was eventually responsible for managing over $1 billion invested across technology companies globally while at the firm.

Mr. Singh serves on the boards of Acquco, US Inspect, Snowball Industries, Embrace Software, Shukr Investments, TalkLocal, the Suburban Hospital Foundation, and the Dingman Center at the Smith School of Business. Mr. Singh received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business in Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Real Estate. He also holds a B.S. in Finance with a citation in Entrepreneurship from the University of Maryland, College Park, and is a CFA charterholder.

Nikhil Kalghatgi, our Principal Executive Officer and Director, has been the Head of Alternative Investments at S.P. Hinduja Banque Privee since early 2020. He was previously a Partner at CoVenture primarily investing in high-yield asset-backed credit opportunities and creating quantitative trading strategies. CoVenture’s investment areas primarily included fintech, special situations and emerging assets.

Mr. Kalghatgi was also a founding Partner at CoVenture Crypto, a multi-strategy cryptocurrency asset management firm backed by SBI Holdings, with a quantitative trading fund, smart-beta fund and venture capital investments. Prior to this, he was a Partner at Vast Ventures, investing in early-stage and late-stage companies.

He has invested across technology including space exploration, consumer, healthcare, software, and transportation. He has also previously been a Principal at Softbank, founder of Partner 6, a long-only equity strategy, and joined the founding team of Localytics building mobile analytics. He also spent several years in the military intelligence sector at the MITRE Corporation. Mr. Kalghatgi holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s degree in engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dean Clinton, our Principal Financial Officer and Director Nominee, is the Cayman Islands Country Officer overseeing activities specific to Investcorp’s Cayman Islands operations. Mr. Clinton has been with Investcorp for more than 10 years having joined the company in 2010. Prior to his current role, he was based in Bahrain as the Head of Operations for Investcorp’s hedge funds line of business.

Prior to his tenure with Investcorp, Mr. Clinton worked within fund administration for Fortis Prime Fund Solutions as the Head of Operations for their Europe region, Mr. Clinton holds an Honours Bachelor of Accounting Science degree from the University of South Africa and is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Harsh Shethia, a member of our advisory committee, is the Head of Investcorp’s India business. He has been with Investcorp for nearly 19 years, having joined in 2002 and held different roles and responsibilities, including Product Specialist for Real Estate and Credit Management business units, Country Head for Oman, Chief of Staff for President of Gulf Business, Head of the Client Servicing team, and Head of Business Analysis and Reporting. In his current role, he is focused on business development for Investcorp India.

Prior to joining Investcorp, Mr. Shethia was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London and prior to that he worked as a Manager with Deloitte Consulting in New York. Mr. Shethia holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and has a BSc degree in Computer Science.

Deepak Parekh, a member of our advisory committee and a member of Investcorp Group’s global advisory committee, spearheads India’s premier housing finance company HDFC Ltd., which has turned the dream of owning a home into a reality for millions across the country. Mr. Parekh is on the board of several leading corporations across diverse sectors. He is the non-executive chairman in India of Siemens Ltd. He is also on the board of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

Mr. Parekh is associated with Indo US CEO Forum, City of London – Finance Committee, Indo – German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC), India-UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP), etc., in an advisory capacity. He pursued his Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Sydenham College of Bombay University and acquired a Financial Chartered Accountant degree from England and Wales.

Mark Mobius, a member of our advisory committee and a member of Investcorp Group’s India advisory committee, is the Founding Partner of Mobius Capital Partners, leading investment manager for emerging markets. He has a reputation as one of the most successful and influential managers over the last 40 years for emerging markets asset class. Dr. Mobius is a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Previously, he was a member of the supervisory board of OMV Petrom in Romania and was also a Director on the Board of Lukoil, the Russian oil company. Prior to founding Mobius Capital Partners, Dr. Mobius was employed at Franklin Templeton Investments for more than 30 years, most recently as Executive Chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group. Dr. Mobius received his Ph.D. at MIT and has studied at Boston University, University of Wisconsin, Syracuse University, Kyoto University and the University of New Mexico.