Madhusudan Kela is one of the most well-known and seasoned investors in the Indian capital markets, with three decades of accumulated experience and a world-class track record of delivering superior risk-adjusted returns.

Early Beginnings

• Madhu’s humble beginnings, as the son of a farmer and shop keeper in a small village in Kurud, India, have instilled in him a sense of urgency and hunger for success and set Madhu on a path to the very top of his industry.

• These hardships and constraints provided Madhu with an extremely grounded perspective in everything that he does, and his value system is deep-rooted.

• Determined to be successful, Madhu moved out of his village to India’s financial capital, Mumbai, where he completed a postgraduate degree in Management (Finance) at Mumbai University.

• He has risen from a vernacular (non-English medium) background to successfully pursue his dreams.

• Between 1991 and 2001, Madhu worked in several brokerage houses. In this period, he was the founding member setting up the institutional broking business at Motilal Oswal, now one of India’s most respected brokerage houses. He also worked at UBS and Peregrine Securities where he was Head of Securities.

• While working on the sell side, Madhu closely interacted with leading fund managers on the buy side and discussed potential investment ideas with them on an ongoing basis. This gave Madhu a tremendous insight into fund management. He also developed a keen eye for the big picture and the ability to identify outstanding investment opportunities.

• This experience on the sell side provided the foundations for Madhu’s transition to an active fund management role, so when he moved to Reliance, he was already well prepared.

Building Reliance

• Madhu joined Reliance Group in 2001 and was entrusted to create and build their asset management business. Between 2001-2003, he handpicked all key members of the investment team and operational personnel, which strengthened the overall organisation.

• From 2004 to 2010 Madhu directly headed the 40-strong equity investment team at Reliance Mutual Fund (now Nippon India Mutual Fund) and was the architect behind the staggering growth in Reliance’s equity AUM from less than USD 2 million to over USD 17 billion in less than a decade and total investment AUM to over USD 60 billion during his total 16 years tenure.

• In 2010, he was promoted to Chief Investment Strategist in the parent company, Reliance Capital, a role he held until June 2017. In this phase, Madhu was directly responsible for the entire investment function at Reliance Capital across all companies.

• Under Madhu’s leadership, Reliance’s flagship fund delivered a CAGR of approximately 28% between 2001 and 2017 compared to India’s S&P BSE 100 benchmark returns of 15% per annum. The fund has delivered over 100x return since inception, making it one of the most successful funds in India’s history.

• As the investment head at India’s leading asset management company, Madhu passionately championed the cause of investing in India, by not just deploying capital but also identifying and providing mentorship and strategic advice to a number of entrepreneurs in the early phase of their business careers – many of whom went on to create considerable shareholder value.

• Madhu is widely regarded for his ability for wealth creation and, in enabling companies to realise their true potential, Madhu has built a strong reputation and goodwill as an investor and mentor providing him access to virtually every corporate and leader in the country.

• At Reliance Group, he was a permanent invitee to all board meetings, a senior decision maker and a key group resource and was pivotal in attracting strategic investment into various arms of Reliance Capital by some of Japan’s largest businesses Nippon Life & Sumitomo Mitsui.

• Madhu’s contribution to Reliance Group and the Indian asset management industry is widely recognised. Madhu has received several accolades, including the Best Equity Fund Manager, personally received from the Prime Minister of India.

• His success propelled Madhu into one of the most celebrated and iconic investment managers in the country, enjoying a strong brand image among the Indian investment community.

• Madhu has been regularly profiled by leading journals, including the likes of Forbes and Asiamoney. His views are sought after by leading business news channels and media outlets including CNBC, Economic Times, Bloomberg, Business Television India, Profit Magazine, China Daily, The Financial Times, Business Standard, MoneyControl and Zee Business.

• He is frequently invited to make representations to policy makers on critical business-related issues of national importance, helping to take industry voice to the policy makers.

• He is also a member on the Venture Capital Investment Committee (VCIC) of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for Fund of Funds for Start-ups (FFS), Member on the committee of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Founder and Trustee at Plaksha University.

Invexa Capital / Cohesion Investments Investment Adviser

• A lifetime of mentoring and nurturing the dreams of others instilled in Madhu a deep desire for his own entrepreneurial pursuit.

• With this in mind, in 2017 he launched a proprietary investment vehicle – MK Ventures, with the team he had handpicked from Reliance. This was set up to capitalise on what he believed to be an amazing wealth creation opportunity in India, a country undergoing an unprecedented transformation, the likes of which has never been seen before.

• In April 2020, MK Ventures made way for a more formal structure called Invexa Capital; launched as a platform to attract external capital in partnership with Cohesion Investments, while retaining the same team and processes as before. Any references to investment activity in the last three years would apply to MK Ventures and hence forth shall be under the new structure.

• Madhu’s dream is to align with and learn from the best investors globally to access growth capital and make the best possible returns for them from India.

• To do this, Madhu has once again handpicked his best-in-class team of passionate and talented colleagues, all of whom worked directly with him at Reliance for a number of years and have the essence of Madhu’s investment style deeply embedded in their process.

• Keeping it simple – the essence of Madhu’s investment style is to identify passionate entrepreneurs and scalable business models early and nurture them through their journey of wealth creation.

MKVentures Capital Limited

• He recently acquired Ikab Securities & Investment Ltd – a listed NBFC (now named MKVENTURES CAPITAL LIMITED) and is the Managing Director.

Singularity AMC

• He is the Chairman – Investment Committee at Singularity AMC, a Growth to Late Stage Focussed Private Equity Fund.

• Over the last three decades, Madhu has built an unrivalled set of the most senior relationships across both corporates and industry experts, thereby enabling exceptional insights that are hard to glean from any other source, creating an asymmetric risk reward investment.

Giving Back

• While Madhu’s career achievements are no secret, very little is publicly known about the numerous ways he has given back to society. Given his humble roots and grounded nature, he has kept this part of his life under the radar

• Madhu is involved in various social and public causes. He is a Trustee at the Konark Cancer Foundation – a dedicated cause for providing cancer patients with financial assistance, treatment and care.

• Madhu is also an active volunteer for the Isha Foundation – one of the most recognised and respected NGOs in the country. The Isha Foundation was founded by Sadhguru – a globally renowned voice on social / spiritual matters.

• Capital markets have been Madhu’s second home for the last three decades, and he has been active in several initiatives to educate investors on markets through conferences and events organised by local groups, associations and corporates.