Hitesh Sachdev is a veteran banker with ICICI Bank. He has spent more than 22
years at ICICI Bank building and leading diverse verticals including Innovation,
Fintech, Private Equity and Investment Banking.
Hitesh currently heads the Startup Engagement and Investments team at ICICI
Bank. He has played an instrumental role in setting up the team and executing
cutting-edge technology projects for ICICI Bank in collaboration with startups.
As part of his current role, Hitesh manages the Startup Investment for ICICI Bank.
The Bank invests its’s own capital into promising startups. Currently, the Bank has
made more than 20 investments into startups including CarDekho, Open, Refyne,
Kredit Bee, Fingpay, EQL Fintech and Credgenics.
Hitesh is a mentor and guides founders actively on domains including Payments,
Digital Lending, SaaS, API Banking, Banking applications of emerging technologies
such as Artificial Intelligence, Metaverse and Blockchain.
Hitesh is Director on the Board of Indian Banks’ Blockchain Infrastructure Company
(IBBIC): India’s first blockchain based banking consortium. Hitesh conceptualized
IBBIC in early 2018 and since then he has been the primary evangelist of the IBBIC
consortium in India and overseas. Hitesh has been instrumental in bringing
together 18 private, PSU & foreign banks to participate in IBBIC as founding
members as well as shareholders.
Prior to this, Hitesh has played a pivotal role in setting up a private equity fund
called Emerging India Fund (EIF) and has successfully led the investments in
sectors including Agri-business, Logistics, Education and Healthcare. Prior to
setting up EIF, Hitesh led the investment banking practice at the Bank where he
specialized in M&A and PE fundraising for mid-market enterprises and executed
multiple M&A and private equity transactions. Hitesh has also managed the SME
business for the Bank.
Hitesh is an active mentor to startups from elite accelerator programs from
institutions such as IIM Lucknow, IIT Bombay, BITS Pilani (RBI Innovation Hub),
SPJIMR, FICCI Flo, I3 Launchpad (in partnership with Infosys & India Accererator),
ICAI and 100X VC
Hitesh has received several Awards and has been an active Keynote Speaker and
participated alongside reputed Panelists at many marquee events.