Micro VC fund Gemba Capital boosts Advisory Board with Yes Bank veteran Somak Ghosh

Homegrown micro VC fund Gemba Capital has boosted its Advisory Board with the inclusion of Somak Ghosh, a Banking and Investment Management stalwart. 

Somak brings a total of 30+ years of experience across Corporate and Development Banking, Venture Capital/Private Equity, Infrastructure Finance and Corporate Strategy.

Somak Ghosh's professional journey

Somak started his career in 1993 and spent a decade with ICICI, Reliance and Rabo India before joining Yes Bank as Group President in 2004.

At Yes Bank, Somak was leading the bank’s Corporate and Development Banking Charter.  He was subsequently designated as a Professional Co-Founder for his contribution towards setting up and building one of India’s most successful mid-sized banks.

By the time Somak left Yes Bank in 2012, he was managing over Rs 40,000 crore of the bank’s assets and over 50% of the profits.

Driven by his interest in the startup ecosystem, in 2013 he set up SEBI registered Contrarian Vriddhi Fund and made seed investments in 12 startups, which includes Pratilipi, Progcap, Signzy, Squadstack, Minjar to name a few.

Somak also sits on the Investment Committee of Motilal Oswal Real Estate Fund. Somak did his MBA from FMS (Delhi) and is an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard (USA).

Leadership comments

Adith Podhar, Founding Partner at Gemba Capital, said, “Somak brings a vast wealth of experience across BFSI and Venture Capital domains. The Fund will seek his advice on governance and strategic decisions. With his expertise and mentorship, we will add real value to our Portfolio Companies since Fintech is a core investment focus for our Fund-II. We are super elated to have him as part of Gemba Capital Family”

On joining the Advisory Board at Gemba Capital, Somak Ghosh said, "I always wanted to contribute towards the development of the startup and fintech ecosystem in India. This engagement with Gemba Capital is an effort to help the ecosystem with my experiences and learnings. I have known both Adith and Govind for a long time and I look forward to adding strategic value to Gemba Capital and their portfolio companies."

Gemba Capital's portfolio

Gemba Capital has invested in 50+ startups so far including the likes of Plum Insurtech, Grip Invest, Wint Wealth, Zuper, Navadhan, Volt Money, Click Post, Showroom, Strata, Kredmint to name a few.

The firm recently received the SEBI License for their second fund of $30 million through which they will invest in seed/pre-seed stage startups across Fintech, Consumer Tech and B2B Platforms.