CORE TEAM.
PURPOSE-BUILT.
SAMIR SHAH I MANAGING PARTNER
Samir has a deep passion for sustainability, and domain expertise in our core sectors through his investments, operating positions and industry affiliations over the past decade. He enjoys working closely with entrepreneurs to help build real value in companies.
Samir is the Managing Partner at Peak Sustainability Ventures, one of India's first institutional sustainability VC funds. He is a veteran in the field of climate investing, having made numerous investments in the space, and achieving a several exits. He has a deep knowledge of Peak's core areas - Energy, Food Systems, Water and Climate Tech, with specific expertise in sub-sectors including energy storage, hydrogen, waste-to-energy, water technology, climate measurement, amongst other areas. Peak has since become known to bring strong value-add and a wealth of knowledge to its portfolio companies.
Samir has 28+ years of financial markets experience, in global public and private markets, and has spent the last 7 years actively investing in sustainability. He made his first climate investment in 2007 in VA Tech Wabag, a pre-IPO deal, now a public company and one of the largest water companies in the world. From then, he has gone on to be an early investor in some of the world's leading sustainability companies, including Waaree Energies, ION Energy, Drinkwell and GIST (Global Initiative for a Sustainable Tomorrow), HST Power and several others.
Prior to Peak, Samir launched Sattva Capital - a private investment office - in 2014, through which he has invested in over 30+ companies (primarily early-stage) across sectors. Outside of Samir's sustainability investments, his portfolio includes several strong performers, including Arya.ai, Beardo (Exit), Venture Catalysts (Partial Exit), Caffe Nero (Unicorn) and Pixis (Exit).
Prior to Sattva, Samir ran a multi-strategy hedge fund in Hong Kong for ten years. He previously held senior principal risk-taking positions at Goldman Sachs (Hong Kong), Salomon Brothers (New York) and Deutsche Bank (New York). Samir holds an MBA from Wharton (with distinction), and holds a Law degree and Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bombay University. He is a certified Chartered Accountant. Samir is also an Adjunct Professor at Ahmedabad University, teaching an MBA course on "Sustainability, Business and Society".
SANJAY NAYAR I GENERAL PARTNER
Sanjay is passionate about identifying and scaling unique technologies and solutions, both in India and globally. At Peak, Sanjay brings his investment acumen, ecosystem connections and governance to the fore.
Sanjay is one of the most well-known and seasoned investors in the Indian private investing landscape, with over 38 years of experience in financial markets. Sanjay is known for establishing KKR’s India business, in his position as CEO of KKR India for 11 years until December 2020, helping build it to a dominant private equity investor in Asia. During this time, Sanjay led investments of over $14Bn, primarily in private equity, playing a pivotal role in establishing KKR as a leading investor in India and Asia-Pacific.
Prior to joining KKR, Sanjay worked across senior leadership positions in Citibank / Citigroup for 25 years in India, UK and USA, from 1985 to 2009. He served as CEO of Citigroup's Indian and South Asian operations, and was a member of Citigroup's Global Management Committee and Asia Executive Operating Committee.
Sanjay currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at NYKAA, and is the Founding Partner of Sorin Investments, an early-stage tech VC fund in India. He is a Board Member of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), a Governing Board member of ISB, Chairman of Grameen Impact Investments India, and Advisory Board member of Habitat for Humanity. He was previously the President of IVCA (Indian Venture Capital Association).
AAKASH SHAH I PARTNER
Aakash is excited by the disruptive nature of technology-led innovations in sustainability, and the imminent need to decarbonize sectors. He spends time understanding emerging industries and new technologies, to identify their application to solving complex climate problems in unique ways.
Aakash has been in VC for the past 7 years, across multiple VC funds globally, and he is the co-founder of neonVest (a VC-backed enterprise SaaS startup), which he has run for the past 5 years. Within sustainability, Aakash has core domain expertise in Energy, Water, Climate, Alternative Materials and Food Systems. He is actively involved in India's climate space, regularly speaking on panels and at conferences. He has done a TEDx talk on "The 'Hidden Cost' of Everything We Do".
Prior to Peak, Aakash headed up the VC arm of Sattva Capital, a leading private investment office based in Mumbai, where he led deals in Energy Web Foundation (now listed on multiple crypto exchanges), Shortlist, and others. Prior to Sattva, Aakash was co-leading the Asia portfolio at Accion Venture Lab, a global fintech fund based in Washington D.C. At Accion, Aakash led deals in Smartcoin, CredRight, and Toffee Insurance. Aakash embarked on his VC journey at Contrarian Partners, a generalist tech VC in Mumbai.
Aakash started his career on the Investment Research team at Aksia, a $160Bn New York-based hedge fund advisory firm, where he evaluated funds across long/short equity, credit and quant strategies. Aakash holds a B.Sc. from NYU Stern School of Business, majoring in Finance and International Business, with a minor in Philosophy. He is also the Co-President of Bleeker Street Angel Network, an India-focused angel network for NYU Alumni.
AADIL CHITALWALA I SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Aadil is inspired by the drive of entrepreneurs who look at creating sustainability-focused businesses in environments and legacy sectors that have been operating in a traditional manner.
At Peak, Aadil is involved in investment evaluation, sector research, sourcing and partnerships. He focuses on Food Systems, Alternative Proteins, Energy Efficiency, and Water at Peak.
Prior to Peak, Aadil was involved on the deal-side at Baring Private Equity Asia (a $40 Bn Hong Kong based fund), where he also built out their ESG framework and Investment criteria. He also has experience working with a search fund and mid-market private equity fund.
Aadil previously worked at BNP Paribas as a Manager. He also co-leads a US-based education non-profit, which was set up 6 years ago, and now operates in 9 countries. Aadil holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an B.Sc. degree from Boston University. He has also passed his CFA Level II.
SARAH BHOT I SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Sarah is excited by the potential of emerging technologies in the alternative energy and energy storage space. She spends her time evaluating these solutions to understand how commercialisation and scale up of these innovations will transpire. When she’s off the clock, she’s jet setting to different locations around the world or exploring new restaurants in Mumbai.
Sarah is involved in investment evaluation, sector research, pipeline management and partnerships at Peak. She joined the firm in 2022, and has been leading Peak's research in Energy Storage, Hydrogen, Green Buildings and Plastics, among others, and has actively led deals in these areas.
Prior to Peak, Sarah was a Manager in Financial Services Consulting at Ernst & Young in London for five years where she specialised in governance, risk and controls in the Wealth and Asset Management sectors. During her time at EY, she worked with large asset managers to identify improvement opportunities in their investment processes, functions and risk which included performing assessments on their responsible investing strategies and ESG frameworks.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, with Management and Finance, from Kings College London. She is a CFA Charterholder and has attained a certificate in ESG Investing by the CFA Institute.
SWARAJ DHARIA I VENTURE FELLOW
Swaraj is passionate about helping alleviate the negative climate impact on distressed and low-income communities. He was also the youngest member of the Indian delegation to attend COP 26 & 27.
Swaraj is a Venture Fellow at Peak, and is currently pursuing his MBA at MIT Sloan. He is involved in investment evaluation, sector research, and representing Peak at climate conferences in the U.S. Swaraj focuses on Regenerative Agriculture, Carbon Credits, Green Buildings and Plastics at Peak.
Swaraj joins us with deep experience in climate policy, as a Green Financing Expert in the Government of India. During this time, he played a significant role in helping with carbon market implementation and negotiations at COP 26 & 27. He was a key part of the Indian negotiation team at COP 26 that worked on adopting Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Prior to this, Swaraj was a management consultant at EY (New York) for three years, working with clients across healthcare, consumer goods, energy, agriculture-technology and policy.
Swaraj holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from VIT, Vellore and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.
AHANA ADVANI I ASSOCIATE
Ahana is inspired by the power of new technologies and the impact that data driven solutions can have on improving climate resilience in India and globally.
At Peak, Ahana leverages her background in Chemistry and Environmental Scienc to develop a deep, technical understanding of various energy and climate technologies. She is involved in research and investment evaluation at Peak.
Prior to Peak, Ahana worked as an Energy, Sustainability and Infrastructure Consultant at Guidehouse in the United Kingdom. She worked on various research areas such as Buildings, Microgrids, DER, Carbon Capture and Storage, among others. Prior to this she managed sustainability strategy and operations for a fashion start-up, Advani London-Bombay. She began her career as an energy policy researcher at Brookings Institute’s India Center. She has also completed a research stint at Imperial College, Department of Material Science, experimentally observing size change of nanostructures manufactured by colloidal lithography due to changes in pH.
Ahana holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai along with a certification in Nanotechnology (Honors).
RISHI RATHI I ANALYST
Rishi is motivated to harness the power of capital in scaling up climate action through support and investment in bold and imaginative ventures.
Rishi is passionate about circular innovations at the intersection of technology and creative business models, particularly in the area of Waste, Water and Alternate Materials. He is involved in deal screening, research and pipeline management at Peak, and is actively researching Green Buildings, Carbon Credits and Climate Analytics.
His experiences range from working on a rural technology development project in the outskirts of Satara, Maharashtra to representing India at the Sustainable Transport Systems and Infrastructure Program in Hokkaido, Japan. While in college, Rishi was part of the founding team for a green lending focused fintech startup. He has previously interned with Frost & Sullivan in the decarbonisation strategy vertical and worked as a climate finance analyst with ECube Investment Advisors.
Rishi graduated with a Bachelors and Masters from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, having completed his Master's Thesis at ETH Zurich in the area of environmental and human health impact modelling.
SAKSHAM AGARWAL I INTERN (IIT-BOMBAY)
Saksham is motivated by scale and building innovations into category-defining businesses in climate.
Saksham is involved in sector research in Energy, Hydrogen and other parts of the climate landscape. He is currently pursuing a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay.