Our Team
Rajeev Mehrotra
MD and CIO
Rajeev started his entrepreneurial journey way back in 1998 with a boutique Investment Bank in India and later in 2001, founded an investment firm, “Alpha Ventures” in the United States. Rajeev joined Edelweiss Financial Services in Mumbai, India as Partner in 2004 initially on the sell side and later on buy side, in both operating and leadership roles. During his 9 years stint at Edelweiss, Rajeev had held several leadership positions, viz., Fund Manager of ‘Edelweiss Special Opportunities Fund’, a USD 230 million fund, Member of the Investment Committee, initially MD and later on Board of ECL Finance Ltd., a large NBFC in India for Lending and Investments, and Co-Head - Investment Banking.
In early 2012, Rajeev moved out and set up “Alpha Alternative Advisors”, an alternative fund management platform domiciled in Singapore. The fund initially focused on managing investments in Asia across various asset classes for large family offices under the Managed Account. Later in 2015, the platform rolled out its first Alternative Fund, “Asia Special Opportunity Fund” (ASOF), under the regulatory regime of Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In view of increased focus on investment opportunities in India, Rajeev founded “Alpha Alternative Asset Advisors” in August 2017 which later received the regulatory approval from SEBI for the launch of its first India dedicated “India Special Opportunity Fund - I” (ISOF-I). Rajeev brings in his rich experience and knowledge on the buy side business mainly in investing and investment management in addition to considerable sell side experience in Investment Banking – M&A & ECM (Equity Capital Markets).
He possesses a strong track record as investor in the Alternative Asset classes including credit, real estate and special situations. His investment and lending experience comes from a deep understanding of local regulatory regime, knowledge across business models and extensive corporate relationships developed over the last almost 3 decades. Rajeev closely worked across different Investment thesis – real estate, special situation, distress, restructuring, PIPE & PE. On the leadership front, Rajeev largely focuses on investment opportunities - origination, structuring and negotiations, exit strategies, investor relations and team building.
He sits on the board of Investee Companies as well on the Board of Alpha Alternatives funds and its committees. In early part of his career, Rajeev had worked with Rajesh Strips Ltd, Castle Douglas Industries Ltd, India and TCR GmbH, Germany. He is MBA, CA (Inter) and Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com).
S Balasubramanian
Director and Co-CIO
His experience includes project structuring, contract structuring and negotiations, financial modelling, limited recourse debt financing, Export Credit Agency backed financing, interest and currency derivatives, transaction documentation, etc. Over the years, he has established and maintained strong relationships with banks, financial institutions and corporate, both Indian and international.
He has done his Post-Graduate in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Engineering in Electronics & Communications.
Dinesh Saboo, CFA
VP - Credit & Investments
Dinesh has over 10 years of experience in fixed income and credit research, and has worked with multiple buy side clients on liquid and private credit space. He excels in identifying undervalued and overvalued credits, price dislocations and arbitrage opportunities in fixed income and equity markets. His areas of interest include distressed credit, recovery computations and RV ideas in the bond trading space. Dinesh has earlier worked as an AVP with Aranca Research, where he was leading a team involved in generating fixed income investment ideas for a leading distressed debt fund investing in Asian markets. Prior to Aranca, he has also been associated with Moody’s Analytics and HSBC across the credit research spectrum. He is a PGDBM (Gold medalist) in Finance, a CFA® charterholder and Bachelor of Commerce from University of Calcutta.
Nilesh Ramnani, CFA
Senior Analyst
Nilesh has 7 years of experience in Financial Industry. Prior to joining Alpha Alternatives, he worked with Bank of America Group as a Senior Analyst, Global Investment Banking. Prior to that, he held the position of Lead Associate at Verity Knowledge Solutions, a former affiliate of UBS Investment Bank. He has also worked in London Bank of America Merrill Lynch office with senior bankers on live deals. In his current role, Nilesh focuses on Investments analysis and exit strategies. Nilesh is a Civil Engineer, MBA in Finance and a CFA® charterholder.
Rishi Surana
Analyst
Rishi has experience of 3 years in Financial services industry. Prior to joining Alpha Alternatives, he worked at Crest Ventures Limited and assisted the investment team in the Company. Prior to that, he worked at Deloitte in the Transaction Advisory Services Department. He has also extensively worked on multiple projects in e-commerce, renewable energy sector and manufacturing sectors. At Alpha Alternatives, Rishi looks into investments evaluation and asset management. Rishi is a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Bachelor’s in Commerce from Nagpur University.