Lighthouse appoints former StanChart exec as adviser

Homegrown private equity firm Lighthouse on Monday appointed former Standard Chartered Bank executive V. Anantharaman as an advisor for growth strategy and guidance across all financial domains. 

“Anantharaman’s knowledge, experience, and guidance will be a great addition to our ecosystem,” said Sachin Bhartiya, co-founder at Lighthouse. 

With an experience over 30 years across financial services sector, Anantharaman had led corporate and investment banking teams in international institutions, including Standard Chartered Bank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America. 

He had worked with global and regional business leadership and governance responsibilities in India and Singapore and had also managed diverse teams. Some of his positions include global head of the Global Industries Group at Standard Chartered Bank; Head of Investment Banking India at Credit Suisse, and Head of Investment Banking India at Deutsche Bank. 

Anantharaman brings strong board-level advisory experience in sectors including technology, consumer and retail, and financial services across M&A, equity and debt capital markets, and risk management. He is an independent director on the boards of The Indian Hotels Company Limited, Axis Asset Management Company, Ecom Express, and IHOCO BV, Netherlands. He is also a Board Mentor with CriticalEye, the firm said in a statement. 

Founded in 2006 by Sachin Bhartiya, Sean Sovak and Mukund Krishnaswami, Mumbai-based Lighthouse focuses on consumer-centric sectors such as healthcare, food and beverages, personal care, building materials, consumer durables, logistics and financial services. The PE fund had in August 2021 invested in publicly-listed Shaily Engineering Plastics Ltd along with White Oak Capital Management. 

Early this month, International Finance Corpo. (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank, has proposed to make equity investments of up to $50 million in Lighthouse AMC Pvt. Ltd’s mid-market private equity fund that is focused on growth transactions in India.