Biome | Team

Madhu Poomalil

Finance and Scale

Madhu Poomalil, our co-founder, leads Finance and Scale at Biome.

He was a former MD and Country Head of D.E. Shaw India and Arcesium, and has been in leadership positions with several global MNCs that mostly operate at the intersection of technology and finance since 1992. Madhu is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and a Fellow Chartered Accountant.

What drives him

Madhu is passionate about developing human capabilities and has been a key volunteer at Sparsh Hospice, since its inception.

As a co founder, he helps Startups with

Finance Strategy and Planning.
Growth and Scale.

Madhu Poomalil

Finance and Scale

Kaustubh Patekar

Product and Validation

Kaustubh heads Product and Validation at Biome. With over two decades of experience in building and scaling tech products and teams, he is the founder of The ProdZen - a product and strategy consulting company. In the past, Kaustubh has worked at large companies and startups in the US (Oracle, MicroStrategy) and India. He has held various leadership roles across engineering,product management and strategy, built successful SaaS products and has a US patent to his name. An alumnus of IIT Bombay with a masters from MIT, USA, he also writes about building products, startups and life.

What drives him

Kaustubh enjoys creating products from just an idea or improving existing products and scaling the business.

As a co founder, he helps Startups with

Product and Validation
Business Model Validation.

Kaustubh Patekar

Product and Validation

Srinivas Kollipara

Strategy and GTM

Meet Srinivas, our co-founder, leading Strategy and Go-to-Market at Biome.
With over three decades of experience from across geographies, Srini is the Co-Founder of T-Hub Hyderabad (Asia’s largest Innovation campus), India President for the Global Entrepreneurship Network, a Board Member of GEN Space, and the South Asia Advisory Board for the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics at MIT. He was previously the Group President - Startup Ventures at Xelpmoc Design & Tech Limited, a publicly listed data science company,

What drives him

Srini’s true passion lies in building robust, resilient venture ecosystems, helping startups scale and building thriving communities around entrepreneurship.

As a co founder, he helps Startups with

Product Strategy.
Product Management.
Business Development.
Go-to-Market Strategy.

Srinivas Kollipara

Strategy and GTM

Rupa Saumil

Talent Acquisition

Rupa leads Talent Acquisition at Biome. With 25 years of experience building early teams in Investment Banking (D.E. Shaw, India), E-Commerce (Amazon, Seattle), Search (Google, Seattle), and Cybersecurity (Crowdstrike, Seattle), she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Osmania University, Hyderabad, and a Master's Degree in Human Resources from IRMA, Anand. Outside of her corporate experience, Rupa is the founder of Footnote - a youth self-sustaining social initiative in sports. She enjoys hiking and is a hiking guide writer and correspondent for the Washington Trails Association.

What drives her

Rupa is dedicated to implementing global talent acquisition processes and guiding executive-level decisions in scaling businesses’ talent growth strategies.

As a co-founder, she helps startups with

Talent Acquisition

Rupa Saumil

Talent Acquisition

Nishita Gill

Ideation and Customer Research

Nishita leads Ideation and Customer Research at Biome.

An alumnus of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, she is the founder of Treemouse, an award-winning strategic consultancy that applies design-led problem-solving techniques to uncharted areas.

What drives her

Nishita is passionate about adapting niche concepts and novel approaches for mass adoption, and frequently advises startups on building feature-sets that scale.

As a co-founder, she helps startups with

Ideation
Design led Innovation
Customer Research and insights

Nishita Gill

Ideation & User Research

Khaja Kamaluddin

Admin & Operations

Khaja leads the Admin Department at Biome, and has 9 years of experience in coordinating and expediting the flow of work. His experience covers IT recruitment, HR, and Admin operations in the recruitment consulting, construction, and venture capital industries.

What drives him

Khaja is dedicated to ensuring smooth and efficient operations, and is driven by a passion for administrative excellence and continuous improvement.

As Admin, he helps startups with

Operational excellence and effective administration.

Khaja Kamaluddin

Operations & Admin

Usha Kommuru

Research & Partnerships

Usha looks after Research and Partnerships at Biome. With nearly 4 years of experience in the Venture Capital industry, she has worked with companies across D2C, Agri-tech, and Age-tech. Previously she was an entrepreneur, and her startup was incubated at IIMB NSRCEL.

What drives her

Usha is driven by identifying patterns & insights through deep research in areas that can have a positive impact on the world. She loves helping to build companies that are better for the planet.

As a Senior Associate, she helps startups with

Research & Analysis,
Idea Validation.

Usha Kommuru

Idea Validation & Partnerships

Mani Rao

Research & Validation

Mani champions validation experiments and primary research activities at Biome. A graduate of Cardiff University, Mani has over 10 years of entrepreneurial experience building and running SMBs and implementing United Nations entrepreneurship programs in East Africa, South East Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent.

What drives him

Mani is passionate about building robust, repeatable frameworks and methodologies that derisk the entrepreneurial endeavour. He thrives on exercising his inquisitiveness and staying up-to-date on emerging sectors and technologies.

As a Senior Associate, he helps startups with

Ideation
Business Model Validation.

Mani Rao

Business Model Validation

Aditya Sharma

Research & Analysis

Aditya has 5 years of experience in investing, working as an equity portfolio consultant, and building a not-for-profit organization focused on reducing waste and funding professional education for women.

What drives him

Aditya firmly believes in building from Bharat, for the world, and values the process of turning intangible ideas into tangible reality. He is passionate about the startup and investing ecosystem, and works towards making it more accessible and impactful.

As a Research Analyst, he helps startups with

Research & Analysis for Ideation and Validation.

Aditya Sharma

Research & Analysis

Zaran Bhagwagar

Growth and Capital

Leading Growth and Capital at Biome, Zaran has 8 years of experience in Venture Building and Venture Capital across India and South East Asia. As an EIR at Mountain Partners, he built and ran operations on portfolio companies across SaaS, E-commerce, Social, and Enterprise. Subsequently, as Principal at Anthill Ventures, Zaran led the build out of the firm in Singapore, led early stage investments for the fund across its thesis, and directly managed the Anthill Partner network of Accelerators, Corporates and Investors.

What drives him

Zaran doubles up as a sounding board and shadow boxing partner for ideas on how to scale the business, position the product, raise funds, and navigate challenges on the startup journey.

As a co founder, he helps Startups with

Fundraising
Pitching
Closing customers