Lightbox

Sandeep Murthy leads Lightbox, a Mumbai-based venture capital firm that invests in early-growth consumer brands in India, where the firm looks for businesses in which the product leads and technology acts as a catalyst. He has been investing in India since 2005, and under his leadership Lightbox manages roughly $400 million and has backed 27 companies whose cumulative value is around $3 billion. The firm makes concentrated bets with sizable ownership in a handful of companies, aiming to organize India's large, unorganized consumption markets. Portfolio companies include InMobi, Info Edge, Cleartrip, Rebel Foods, Bombay Shirt Company, Furlenco, Nua, Zeno Health and Cityflo.

Siddharth Dhankhar is a Principal at Lightbox, where he works on investment strategy, deal sourcing, diligence, and negotiation, and supports portfolio companies. He previously co-led global investments at Alter Global, a Silicon Valley-based VC backing founders across LATAM, MENA, Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, and earlier worked at Orios Venture Partners. He has launched products in retail and fintech, contributed to UPI adoption via a USAID initiative with the Government of India, and worked on Snapdeal's consumer tech; he holds a degree from BITS Pilani.

Intern who worked on investment thesis and sector deep-dives in consumer businesses; a UC San Diego graduate.

Anshh Malhotra is a Business Analyst at Lightbox, working on fund and operations with expertise in data visualization, financial modeling and analysis, and business analytics. He began his career at Birla Open Minds Education after internships at Bayer, Tata Technologies, and YouGov. He holds an MBA in finance and an engineering degree in information technology from NMIMS University.

Ashish Bhargava began his career in the FMCG sector, spending over a decade at Marico, where he served as head of marketing and helped develop consumer brands in India. In 2008 he moved into private equity, joining Mumbai-based True North (previously India Value Fund Advisors). He works closely with Bombay Shirt Company.

Bhavana Waigankar oversees operations at Lightbox, aligning operational goals with the firm's business objectives, improving efficiencies across functions, managing internal and external relationships, and leading leadership development. A qualified civil lawyer with an MBA, she began her career at Tata Motors before moving into venture capital at Silicon Valley-based Sherpalo Ventures, where she supported the team handling the firm's India investments.

Bijou Kurien is a consumer and retail leader with more than 40 years of experience across fast-moving consumer goods, consumer durables, and retail in India. He began his career at Hindustan Unilever in 1981, spent 19 years at Titan helping build its lifestyle and accessories brands and retail chains, and later served as President & CEO of Reliance Retail from 2006 to 2014. He holds a PGDBM from XLRI Jamshedpur and now advises private equity firms and companies, and sits on several company boards.

Chirag Goradia has worked in the Indian venture capital ecosystem since the start of his career, beginning as one of the initial team members at an early-stage fund where he helped establish the fund and was involved in fundraising. He has led and contributed to investments across consumer and consumer-tech, fintech, and B2B marketplaces, with experience in business diligence, commercial negotiations, and deal closure, as well as supporting portfolio companies post-investment. He is a Commerce graduate and a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Himanshi is a corporate lawyer whose work spans M&A, private equity, venture capital, and fintech, including deal execution, commercial contracts, and corporate advisory for established clients and startups. Before joining Lightbox, she worked at Lex Consult and Khaitan & Co, advising management and investors across multiple jurisdictions. She holds a law degree from SVKM's Pravin Gandhi College of Law (Mumbai University).

Data science and investment intern pursuing computer science and finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

Intern who worked on healthtech market research; a Physics and Economics student at Harvard University.

Investment intern who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is heading to LSE for a master's degree.

Neha Rane is a CA Intermediate from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. She began her career at a shipping and logistics firm handling accounts and administration, and joined Lightbox in 2017, where she works across the firm's accounts and administration functions.

Pranjal Khandelwal is part of Lightbox's investments team, working on portfolio value creation across sectors. He graduated from IIT Roorkee in 2019 and earned an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 2023. Before Lightbox, he worked at McKinsey & Company on commercial due diligence for private equity clients and growth strategy, and earlier spent two years as a business analyst in American Express's risk management division.

Rashmi Guptey is a qualified company secretary who began her career at two early-stage technology startups before moving into venture capital with Sherpalo Ventures and later Lightbox. At Lightbox she leads the finance, legal, and ESG functions, handling fund structuring, tax and governance compliance, investor reporting, and involvement in investment and exit transactions including legal and operating diligence. She also defines the ESG strategy for the firm and its portfolio companies.

Rohan More handles IT and operations at Lightbox, where he has been part of the core operations team since 2016, supporting internal tooling, security, and the firm's events. He studied information technology at Mumbai University and previously managed IT at Cleartrip for nearly seven years and worked as a systems administrator at Lionbridge Technologies for three years.

Intern who worked on the investment thesis; an Economics and Mathematics student at New York University.

Intern who worked closely with the investment team while pursuing CA Intermediate.

Vijaya Rane works in administration and operations at Lightbox, handling event logistics, team travel coordination, and paperwork. She graduated in commerce from Kelkar College and began her career at education consulting firm The Red Pen before joining Lightbox.

Yash Dhotre joined Lightbox in November 2025 with a background in marketing and communications across the private capital ecosystem, including private equity, private credit, and real assets, as well as exposure to telecom, energy, and SaaS. He holds a degree in Political Science and Economics from Fergusson College, Pune. At Lightbox he leads the firm's marketing and brand building efforts, supporting both the firm and its portfolio companies.