BHASKAR UPADHYAYA

Co-founder

Bhaskar D Upadhyaya, Director and Co-founder at Kislay, has over a decade of experience in software development and marketing. Entrepreneurship has been his passion. After graduation, he worked for two years with Vista Software, and later, he co-founded “Techwalnut Automation And Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd”. He was instrumental in Techwalnut’s growth from a 2 member to a 15 member team, and acquisition of clients such as Reliance and Uninor. In the past, he managed a team of 100 people while working on the ‘Gaon Chalo’ project of Tata global beverages. While working on market linkage activities for farmers, Bhaskar saw the opportunity to link farmers with retail customers by using technology, and co-founded Kislay with the mission of connecting 100 thousand retailers to farmers.

In the current role, Bhaskar is responsible for implementing the growth strategies and overseeing the entire business operations. Bhaskar holds a Masters in Computer Application (MCA) degree from Nagpur University.

PARESH SETHY

Co-founder

Paresh K Sethy, Director and Co-founder of Kislay, brings over 15 years of experience in the field of venture development. He has been an integral part of Kislay’s transformation journey and is responsible for building the overall strategy. He is also responsible for the company’s capital raising, development of new businesses, partnerships and investor relation functions. In the course of his career in venture development, he has held key positions in Pulse IIT, ABP Group, T.I.M.E., A2P Innovations, and IFHD.

Prior to joining Kislay, Paresh was a Senior Advisor – Technical Assistance with IFHD, Bangalore. During this time, Paresh mentored 52 agribusiness start-ups dealing with 40 agri-value chains which were spread over 18 states of India. He did feasibility studies, value chain mapping, business plan development, market entry strategies, setting up business processes, and raised funds as part of his mentorship. Paresh was also a business consultant and advised Milagrow, Flipkart, and Servotech during their early-stage operations. Paresh holds an MBA from IIM, Calcutta and a B. Tech degree from IIT, Guwahati.

RAMASHISH BARANWAL

Co-founder

Ramashish Baranwal, Co-founder at Kislay, has over 15 years of experience in software and technology. He has previously held diverse positions with Tejas Networks, EMC, Yahoo, Apalya Technologies and Flipkart. He has led teams in diverse fields like affiliate marketing, machine learning, big data and logistics. At Apalya he was responsible for the technology behind its product MyPlex which grew to more than 1 million users. At Flipkart he led the engineering teams of Grocery and ADM (alternate delivery model) logistics and was instrumental in their successful launch.

In the current role, Ramashish is responsible for the technology behind Kislay. He holds a B.Tech in Electronics & Communication Engineering from IIT Guwahati.

Angel Mario Martinez-Garcia

Advisor

Angel has over 15 years of experience working directly with more than a hundred agricultural producer organisations in more than 20 countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia. He has extensive knowledge of agricultural value chains with proven skills in project design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation, cross-sector partnerships, as well as financial planning and development.

Angel is passionate about start-ups. He is the founding member of Morning Rock, ID Coffees, and Flor de Café. He also worked with Progreso Foundation, Avance, Solidaridad, PepsiCo, McCann Erickson, and Pearson Market Research in the past.

Angel has an MBA in sustainability business from Marylhurst University, USA. He is fond of coffee and is unsuccessfully trying to restrict coffee consumption to less than 7 cups a day.

Dr. Saroj Kumar Pani

Advisor

Dr. Saroj Kumar Pani is a faculty member of Strategy, and chairman of Centre for Entrepreneurship at IIM Nagpur. Dr. Pani is an MBA in marketing, a Fellow of IIM Bangalore in Corporate Strategy and Policy, and has completed the CPCL program from Harvard Business School, Boston. Dr. Pani has more than eighteen years of experience in industry and academia. After completing his doctoral program, he has worked as a visiting faculty at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy and as a full-time faculty member at IIM Indore, and later at XLRI, Jamshedpur. Dr. Pani also has first-hand entrepreneurial experience as co-founder of an education and consulting start-up during early 2000.

Dr. Pani’s area of research and teaching broadly relates to socio-economic strategy, business model innovations, entrepreneurship, and Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) strategy. Dr. Pani has been recognized for his research and teaching. He has received Andrew Towl Endowment Fund from Harvard University, Best Young Teacher Award from AIMS, Best Research Paper award at pan-IIM World Management conference, Best paper award at ICSBS, Singapore, and Outstanding Reviewer award at the Academy of Management annual conference, San Antonio, Texas to name a few. Apart from research and teaching, Dr. Pani has also been involved with industry as consultant and resource person for executive education. In recent past he has been involved with reputed business firms such as Powergrid, ZIM Labs, Transrail, Mahindra Finance, SBI Life, Ashok Leyland, Indian Oil to name a few.