7Avenues - About Us

7Avenues is run by a core team of founding investors who play key executive roles. Our wealth is tied to the success of 7Avenues and to the success of our investors.

Shankar AVSB is our founder investor, with experience in commercializing new technologies and services, with executive level experience in TMT and Energy sectors, including Project Finance and M&A, and has worked with industry leaders like ABB, Infosys, BP, Fidelity and Citigroup. Business owners worldwide have consulted with him on key business and financing decisions. He works with traders and investors across capital markets. He is an alumnus of NIT Jaipur, IIM Lucknow, and has also studied at Stanford University.

Sandeep Saxena is our founder investor and Managing Director of 7Avenues. He is also the CEO of 7to9 Retail and Big India Farms, with business leadership experience in both B2B and B2C businesses. He has worked with leading companies like Indian Oil, Infosys, Cogizant, Amex, Franklin Templeton in senior positions. Sandeep emphasizes constant innovation, and has indepth understanding of retail, supply chain, real estate and financial industries and is a coach for the entire team. He is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Lucknow.

Kartik Sarwade is a key member of 7Avenues with extensive experience in IT-BPO-KPO services and Mergers & Acquisitions in a variety of deals in the technology and business services space. He advises 7Avenues on financial planning, equity investments and divestments related to various venture companies. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Lucknow.

Srinagesh T is a member of 7Avenues, with extensive CXO level experience in project finance and M&A with ABB Energy Ventures and GMR group where he lead the development of Hyderabad International Airport. He is currently operating a Real Estate Investment fund. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore.

Ranjit Patnaik is a member of 7Avenues. He is currently growing his mineral trading company, and had led operations of 7to9 Retail for a brief duration. Earlier, he was Head of Client Engagement at Irevna, and rapidly grew their KPO services. He is an alumnus of NIT Jaipur and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

Sanket Mehta is a member of 7Avenues and was actively involved in the operations of 7to9 Retail. He is currently operating his own investment services company. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.

Gourav Khabya is a member of 7Avenues with experience in marketing and customer relationships and is currently with IIM Ahmedabad on their new ventures initiative. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.

Nitish Bandi is a member of 7Avenues, and has led the operations of Big India Farms. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, and is currently pursuing MBA from Stanford University.

Parshu A is a member of our new ventures group. He is a private equity executive with rich experience in fund raising and investor relationships. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and Carnegie Mellon University.

Sandeep B is an member of 7Avenues based in the Asia-Pacific region with extensive experience in banking and financial services. He is an alumnus of Delhi University and IIM Bangalore.

Achal Mehra is a business partner with over 18 years of industry experience in CXO positions. He has extensive business network worldwide that is helpful in our foreign business plans. He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.

7Avenues today has 160+ member-investors worldwide with more interested in our ventures to gain the promoter-like benefits, which one can not achieve easily through publicly traded stocks. We invite new members to join us where our investment objectives match. Our group includes professionals from reputed organizations and several self-made businessmen. We value their ideas and spirit of entrepreneurship.

Company Overview: In October 2004, a few of us were wondering how to use our corporate experience to build a world class a retail business in India, where we can negotiate with big companies to bring best deals for retail customers. We had to start somewhere, and pooled whatever we could from personal bank accounts, and started 7to9 Retail Stores. The first steps were taken at a small scale but it worked. By Q1 2005, we realized its better to have a holding company through which all interested member-investors can invest in 7to9 Retail and other new ventures we wanted to start. Thus by Q2 2005, 7Avenues became the holding company for all our ventures, bringing together all our capital, talent, and global business networks. You can see our portfolio here.

With 7to9 Retail, our first and major venture, we have grown from 1 Supermarket Store in Q1 2005 to about 10 stores today (store numbers change once in a while as we close weaker stores and ramp-up high-performers), and we plan to scale up gradually to ensure profitable growth. We don't believe in rapid sales growth without a clear grip on operational profitability.

Big India Farms is our farming and food supplies venture, with great potential for profitable growth, because we have our own farm land and also access to farmers in our network who can align their produce with us. Therefore, today, we have both (a) Brick & mortar businesses like Retail Supermarkets, Food Supply Chain and Farms and (b) Online Services. So, from a modest beginning in 2005, we have seen a growing demand for our ventures and business approach. However, our core values of creating wealth for everyone, transparency, and driving a change, remain the same.