Hailing from a traditional Indian business community, Govind has completed a full circle as an early-stage investor, startup operator and now as Principal at Gemba Capital. He is passionate about Consumer Internet, Agri-tech and Fintech domains.

In his last role as Vice President, Govind was part of the senior leadership at Upscalio. He joined as their 5th employee and played a key role in the growth of the startup to 300+ employees and Rs. 300 Cr+ revenues within 2 years. At Upscalio, he led 7 M&A transactions and managed business integration for 5 acquired consumer brands. He also led some of the strategic projects like reduction in working capital.

Having been an operator, and being part of the 0>1 journey, he appreciates the challenges and the complexities faced by founders everyday while scaling their venture.

Before Upscalio, Govind spent more than 5 years at Contrarian Capital, a seed stage VC fund where he led end to end investments. Select investments include Pratilipi (Series C+), Progcap (Series C+, partial exit at 20x MOIC), Signzy (full exit at 3x), Squadstack (Series B+), Minjar (full exit at 3x), Zvolv (Series A+). He was also responsible for fund operations, managing exit transactions and LP relationships.

Prior to joining Contrarian, Govind spent 1.5 years at the family office of Ex MD of Castrol India, where they invested in First Energy (full exit at 3x). and Xoxoday (full exit at 30x).

Govind is an MBA and CFA. He enjoys single malts, poker and cricket and prefers the mountains.