RISHI KOHLI

Co-Founder

Rishi has over 22 years of experience in the Indian financial markets heading both sell-side and buy-side businesses in the public equity markets space. He has a lot of market firsts to his credit with being the pioneer in options strategies and managed futures research for India in his institutional broking days from 2001-2006 to starting and running India’s first quantitative hedge fund in 2007 & Asia’s first systematic managed futures fund in 2011 at ProAlpha, as part of US-based Monsoon Capital where he has had many global institutional investors offshore and some of the biggest Indian family offices onshore as investors and clients. Rishi has run various hedge fund strategies across India and Asia with a focus on quantitative and systematic strategies and has won many global awards in the past for running the Best New Asian Fund and Best Managed Futures Fund in Asia besides one of the quant Funds being managed by him being ranked in the Top 10 funds globally in its category in 2020 due to capturing strong market returns in the sharp Covid related market crash.

Rishi is currently the CIO of JioBlackRock Mutual Fund. His prior stint was at InCred Capital where he was the Managing Partner & CIO of the Hedge Fund Strategies business. Before that, he was with Avendus as the Managing Director & CIO of Quant Strategies within their hedge fund unit.

Rishi has been a speaker at many global quant and hedge fund conferences like Quant Invest in Paris, Hedge Funds Asia in Hong Kong, MFA Conference in Miami, VCCircle’s PE/VC Summit in Mumbai and AIWMI’s Alternatives Summit in Mumbai.

Rishi’s comments and interviews are regularly featured on various television media like CNBC and ET Now as well as various leading financial newspapers and magazines like Economic Times, Business Line, Outlook Money and Business India. He is one of the most prominent faces on the institutional buy side industry for quant-based and systematic investing in India.

He holds an MBA from IIM Lucknow and Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur.

Pankaj Mani

Co-Founder

Pankaj Mani is the President of CQF-India(Delhi) Society, the world’s largest and reputed Quant Finance community founded by the renowned legend Dr. Paul Wilmott (Oxford University). He is Executive Committee Member- the globally recognised body Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)- India Chapter. He is MD at RealWorldRisk having a team of world-class and renowned experts ,where he advises and consults renowned and reputed local and global institutions.

He is research author for the world’s prestigious Quant Finance & Risk Magazine Wilmott(Wiley Publishing ) for deep influential seminal works, this is where leading Globally Renowned Quant veterans publish on some new influential works. He is also the author of the randomly written book – Scientific Investing in the Real-World: Black Swan & Tail Risk. He has written many scholarly deep research works. His views are also covered by some of the leading newspapers and online platforms like The Economic Times.

His areas of expertise are into unconventional Quant, Quantamental,Quant+ Fundamental, Portfolio, Risk, Investment, AI/ML, Randomness, Causality, Convexity, Performance Analysis, Non-Linearity , Scientific Factors based Strategies, Human Behavioural scientific dynamics, Happiness,Stress-adjusted strategies, AI/ML, ESG,Risk Management, Tail Risk, Black Swan etc. His practical portfolio Strategies have done quite well over the years successfully handling Black Swans and many tail events without much stress and worrying about future of markets in mindful ways.

He has deeply interacted and collaborated with many world-renowned experts and locally as well e.g. Nobel Laureate, Renowned Professors, Global Best Selling Authors, Senior Government Advisors & Policymakers, Fund Managers, Academicians etc..

He often speaks and trains at national and internationally reputed platforms having participants from leading and top global and local financial institutions, universities, government institutions e.g. Goldman Sachs,RBI, SBI, ICICI , Columbia University, NYU, IITs, IIMs, ISI, CFA among others. His thoughts are also covered by some of the leading newspapers

He has also keen research interests in Philosophy, Spirituality, Nature, Social dynamics, Neuroscience, Consciousness among others.

Pawan Mehar

Director

Strategic Leader in Financial Markets
Brings nearly two decades of experience across institutional advisory, treasury solutions, investment platforms, and client-focused wealth creation.

Institutional Markets & Treasury Specialist
Built a strong foundation at ICICI Prudential AMC and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, advising corporate treasuries, banks, institutions, and FIIs on investments and strategic business growth.

Pioneer of Research-Driven Client Platforms
At Fundvaliz LLP, led the development of a research-backed platform that empowered investors with better tools, deeper insights, and more informed financial decision-making.

Entrepreneurial Builder of Investment Solutions
Expanded offerings for corporates, senior executives, promoters, and NRIs across mutual funds and a broad spectrum of financial instruments.

Champion of Structured Investment Thinking
At Unicorn Investment Managers LLP, driving differentiated investment approaches through market experience, disciplined execution, and research-led portfolio strategies.

Broad-Based Market Solution Expertise
Led initiatives across mutual funds, corporate bonds, RBI bonds, equity shares, ETFs, and equity sub-broking—bridging traditional advisory with evolving investment frameworks.