Aditya Khanna

Aditya Khanna (born 8 December 1971) is an Indian entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist. In his career, Khanna has founded and invested in businesses in a diverse range of industries. In 2020, he co-founded Faarms, an Indian technology company, which merged with Connect India E-Commerce Services in 2024 to form Bharat Supply, a logistics technology, e-commerce and financial technology company. In 2023, Khanna became a partner at Ethiopotash, a company that mines sulphate of potash in Ethiopia. In 2024, he became a non-executive partner of Etonhurst Investment Advisors, an Indian real estate fund management firm.

Earlier in his career, Khanna was involved with various businesses. In 1995, Khanna co-founded Tamarind Collection, a restaurant group, in London, England, and was involved with the company until 2016. In 2000, he was one of the founding investors of the Quintessentially Group, a British concierge company. In 2001, Khanna co-founded Pipal Research, a knowledge process outsourcing company, which was sold to CRISIL in 2010. From 2005 to 2008, he co-founded and owned Bridge Capital Advisors, an infrastructure, power, and warehousing asset management company. From 2005 to 2019, Khanna founded and owned Yog Capital, an investment bank and investment company. In 2006, he co-sponsored TransTech Services Partners Inc, a Nasdaq Stock Market listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which acquired a steel manufacturer in 2009. He was also one of the original co-owners of Punjab Kings, an Indian Premier League cricket team founded in 2008.

Khanna is noted for his influential connections. During his early career, Khanna was linked to controversial allegations concerning oil deals and the use of his international political influence for business gains. However, these allegations were never proven, and he was cleared of all accusations. Khanna is involved with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and is on the advisory board of the United Nations’ UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx). Khanna was a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) based in London, England, from 1983 to 2020, and became a resident in India in 2020.

Early life and education

Aditya Khanna was born on 8 December 1971 in Delhi, India. A member of the Khanna family, he is the youngest son and child of businessman Vipin Khanna and Naginder Khanna. His mother, Naginder was the daughter of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. Khanna's three elder siblings are Vinita, Navin and Arvind.

Khanna attended school at Millfield in Somerset, England, where he was head boy. He attended university at Richmond, The American International University in London.

Career

Early career and family businesses

Dynamic Sales Service International

Khanna started his career by joining his father, Vipin and his Dynamic Sales Service International (DSSI) group of companies. Khanna was the managing director of DSSI and was based in DSSI's London, England, office. Khanna was also a director of DSSI Exports. In 1996, he was involved in DSSI's trading and marketing of agricultural commodities and fertilizers. In 1999, Khanna and Vipin were one of the bidders for Haryana Breweries Limited (HBL), during the company's privatisation by the Haryana Government and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC).Khanna eventually became the vice chairman of DSSI Global, and led DSSI's international operations from the company's London office. During his time as vice chairman of DSSI, Khanna in 2017, led a high-level corporate delegation that met with Amarinder Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Punjab at the time and was visiting London. The delegation met with Singh to discuss Hera Group, an Italian utilities company, and their interest in starting an industrial waste conversion project, that would convert Punjab's industrial waste into energy and therefore help the state to lower pollution levels. Khanna and Amarinder Singh are also first cousins. The two are related through Khanna's mother, Naginder, who was Amarinder Singh's paternal aunt.

Tamarind Collection

Khanna and Vipin also started businesses together. In 1995, he and Vipin founded Tamarind, a restaurant in London that became part of the Tamarind Collection, their restaurant group. Tamarind is an Indian restaurant in Mayfair and in 2001, became the first Indian restaurant in the United Kingdom to receive a Michelin star. Khanna and Vipin opened a second restaurant as well, named Imli. Imli was a restaurant in Soho, which was rebranded as Tamarind Kitchen in 2017. The Tamarind Collection acquired Zaika, an Indian restaurant in Kensington, in 2013. He was involved in the Tamarind Collection from its founding in 1995 to 2016.

FiNoble Advisors

In 2005, Khanna and Vipin founded FiNoble Advisors, which was an investment bank. FiNoble Advisors had offices in New Delhi, London and New York City, and advised Indian companies that were searching for acquisitions in Europe and the United States. FiNoble also assisted foreign middle-market companies and financial institutions that were looking for opportunities in India. In 2007, 20% of FiNoble Advisors was acquired by Kaupthing Bank, which was an Icelandic bank.

Independent business career

In his independent business career, Khanna has founded businesses in various industries and has been a financier.

Quintessentially Group

Khanna was one of the founding investors of the Quintessentially Group, a British luxury concierge company, founded in 2000, and was involved with the company from 2000 to 2014.

Pipal Research

In 2001, Khanna co-founded Pipal Research, a knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) company, with headquarters in Chicago, and research centres in Bangalore, Noida and Gurugram. Pipal Research was one of India's most prominent KPO companies in the research and analytics segment. The company's clients included BT Global Services and Goldman Sachs. Pipal Research was also heavily involved in the financial services sector. Pipal Research had a contract with the London Stock Exchange to produce research for investors on companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market, which the company provided through their own web portal, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg. Pipal Research also tested strategies and models for quantitative hedge funds, and also advised other hedge funds in their position sizing and market timing. The company was acquired by CRISIL in 2010.

Bridge Capital Advisors

In 2005, Khanna co-founded Bridge Capital Advisors and was involved with the company until 2008. Bridge Capital Advisors was an asset management and investment advisory company based in Singapore and had a subsidiary in India. Bridge Capital Advisors primarily invested in assets and provided investment advisory services to foreign institutional investors in the Indian warehousing, infrastructure and power industries. The company owned 2 million square feet of warehousing space, and the warehouses were located in Bangalore, Chennai, Dehradun and Pune. The infrastructure and power assets that Bridge Capital Advisors had invested in and managed in India included two free-trade warehouse zones, a container freight station, a toll road concession, a hydro power station, and investments in other hydro power stations and wind power fields.

Yog group of companies

Khanna has also founded companies and invested in ventures through his "Yog" group of companies, which he founded in 2005. His investment bank and private investment company, Yog Capital, offered services in mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and capital raising; however, the company did not offer Equity Capital Market services. The company's office was on Regent Street, in London. Yog Capital's investment banking services were predominantly focused on the telecommunications, information technology (IT), media, electronics, infrastructure and retail industries. Yog Capital's proprietary investments were primarily focused on companies in the United Kingdom and foreign companies seeking to enter the Indian market. In 2015, Yog Capital was a donor to Jo Johnson, who at the time was the Minister for Universities and Science under then- British Prime Minister Theresa May. Jo Johnson is also the brother of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Khanna's Yog group of companies also had an IT outsourcing business. In 2010, his company, Yog Sports signed a ten-year official merchandise distribution deal with the Indian Premier League and the eight original teams of the league.

Punjab Kings

Khanna was one of the original co-owners of the Indian Premier League cricket team, Punjab Kings, which was founded Kings XI Punjab in 2008.

Faarms and Bharat Supply

In 2020, Khanna co-founded Faarms. Faarms was founded as an Indian technology company that provided an e-commerce platform for India's farming community. The company, maintained an internal fully owned and operated logistics network, provided products and services to farmers across India through its online marketplace platform. Faarms' platform also assisted farmers in listing their produce in the company's centralised catalogue management system, through which farmers could have sold to institutional buyers across India. In August 2021, the company raised $2 million in a seed round that was led Koh Boon Hwee and Cornelius Boersch, among other angel investors. 9Unicorns, one of India's most prominent startup accelerator platforms, also invested in Faarms in 2021. In November 2021, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. The collaboration with CWC allowed Faarms to leverage CWC's network of warehouses for delivering farming needs to small and marginal farmers.

In January 2022, Faarms signed an MoU with G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. The collaboration with G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology gave farmers access to new seeds and other inputs developed by or in collaboration with the university, as well as access to knowledge from scientists on Faarms' mobile app. Also in January 2022, Faarms, through collaborations with other businesses, launched customized digitally distributed insurance products for India's rural population, with a particular focus on farmers. In April 2022, Bharat Bill Payment System and Faarms entered into a collaboration to facilitate recurring payments services, which included loan repayments and bills, for farmers on Faarms' mobile app. In July 2022, Faarms raised $10 million from investors in a funding round. The funding round was led by Boersch, Koh, Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Ramit Bharti Mittal and other Indian and international investors. The $10 million funding round also included an investment from Auxano Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. In 2023, Faarms began to provide access to loans.

In January 2024, Faarms' parent company, Faarms Global Tech Venture, and Connect India E-Commerce Services, a logistics technology company, merged to form Bharat Supply. Connect India E-Commerce Services was part of an investment portfolio of impact investor Aavishkaar Capital. Bharat Supply focuses on supply chain management and providing integrated logistics services, including rail logistics, warehousing, reverse logistics, and first-mile, middle-mile and last-mile transport, for rural India. Bharat Supply also operates an e-commerce marketplace platform, provides insurance services, offers banking services, and facilitates bill payment services. Khanna is credited as a co-founder of Bharat Supply and is a member of the company's board of directors.

Ethiopotash

In 2023, Khanna became a partner and board member at the mining company Ethiopotash, which extracts sulphate of potash in Ethiopia. Ethiopotash, a subsidiary of XLR Enterprises (Cyprus), mines sulphate of potash through solution mining at the Dallol Project mine, located in the Dallol area of the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia. In 2022, XLR Enterprises (Cyprus) acquired the Dallol Project mine from Yara International, and subsequently established Ethiopotash as a subsidiary of the company. Ethiopotash is headquartered in Gurugram and has branch offices in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Ethiopotash's Dallol Project mine contains one of the world's largest deposits of potash. Ethiopotash's production process results in the lowest global cost for sulphate of potash. The Dallol mining project, operated by Ethiopotash, maintains a low carbon dioxide footprint in the sulphate of potash mining industry due to its avoidance of the Mannheim process in its production. The sulphate of potash that Ethiopotash mines is exported from the Port of Tadjoura in Tadjoura, Djibouti.

Etonhurst Investment Advisors

In 2024, Khanna became a non-executive partner and a member of the advisory board of Etonhurst Investment Advisors, an Indian real estate fund management firm based in Mumbai. Etonhurst invests in various real estate asset classes in India. Etonhurst's first fund focuses on investing in Mumbai's residential redevelopment real estate market.

Other business and investment interests

In 2006, Khanna co-sponsored TransTech Services Partners Inc, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol TTSM. In 2009, TransTech Services Partners acquired Global Hi-Tech Industries Limited (GHIL), an integrated steel producer in India. In 2008, Khanna founded Global Strategic Services (GSCUBE), which provided advisory services to companies in the Indian retail industry and represented various foreign retail companies, including Energizer, in India. In 2009, he invested in Freefonix, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) commissioned animated musical television show. In 2011, Khanna and businessman Angad Paul financed the restaurateur Ilias Nathanail's pizza restaurants in London. In 2013, he was part of a consortium of investors that acquired shares in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers. In 2015 Khanna co-founded Terravision Radar and was involved with the company until 2018.

Philanthropic roles

Khanna is involved with various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other institutions. He has been on the advisory board of the UNAIDS' Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx). HIEx was founded by the United Nations (UN) in 2019, and aims to bring leaders in the public and private sectors together, in order to promote innovations and investments in global health. He is also a volunteer for the Isha Foundation and has worked with Sadhguru, the founder of the Isha Foundation. Khanna is also involved with other NGOs, which include the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI), Values-based Education and Pointing out the Great Way Foundation. In 2011, Khanna through his company Yog Capital, was one of the partners of Leher Leher Kabir, a concert that was set up by the Yogi Arwind Foundation to support the Clean the Ganga project, which addressed the pollution of the Ganges river and supported efforts to clean it.

In 2022, Khanna was part of DRI's first World SDG Forum, which was established by the DRI to build a network of organisations that are engaged with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Controversies

Oil-for-Food Programme

In 2005, the Paul Volcker led Independent Enquiry Committee published its report on corruption in the UN's Oil-for-Food Programme. Among the report's allegations was that then Minister of External Affairs Natwar Singh, his son Jagat Singh and Khanna were linked to a company named Hamdan Exports, which allegedly functioned as a middleman for oil sales to Masefield AG, a company in Switzerland. Reportedly, Masefield AG paid kickbacks in exchange for the oil sales, part of which allegedly went to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, and allegedly the rest went to Natwar and others. Khanna, a relative of Natwar's, allegedly received payoffs from Masefield for procuring oil contracts through lobbying by Natwar. Khanna was later cleared and given a clean chit by the Pathak Inquiry Authority, which was formed to investigate the allegations.

In April 2006, during the initial investigations, Khanna left India and traveled to London, where he was residing at the time. Later in April 2006, he returned to India. After Khanna's return to India, his passport was seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI); however, after further investigations, the Delhi High Court ordered the CBI to release Khanna's passport back to him. The Delhi High Court also stated that Khanna has not been implicated or arraigned as an accused person in the CBI's case. Khanna was eventually cleared by the courts and the cases against him were dismissed.

Securency

In 2007, Securency, the banknote printing company of the Reserve Bank of Australia, was being investigated for bribing foreign officials, in what was at the time the largest foreign bribery investigation in Australian history. During the investigation, Securency was accused of bribing foreign officials so that the company could win contracts for printing polymer banknotes. The investigation revealed that in order to win the contracts, Securency would engage the help of politically connected businessmen. Khanna was one of the businessmen that Securency engaged with. Securency reportedly engaged with Khanna from 2000 to 2006.

Personal life and family

Khanna was a Non-Resident Indian (NRI), based in London from 1983 to 2020. After 37 years as an NRI, he returned to India in 2020 and became a resident of the country.

Khanna is a member of the Khanna family. He is the youngest son and child of businessman and financier Vipin Khanna and Naginder Khanna. His mother, Naginder was the daughter of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. His paternal grandfather was businessman Shanti Lal Khanna, and his paternal uncle, Vinod Khanna, is a businessman. His sister, Vinita Singh (née Khanna) is a businesswoman, and is married to Randhir Singh, a sports administrator, a former member of the International Olympic Committee and a former Olympic-level shooter. His brother, Navin is a businessman. His brother, Arvind is a politician, businessman, investor and philanthropist. Khanna's first cousin is Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab, as Khanna's mother, Naginder, was Singh's paternal aunt and the sister of Yadavindra Singh, the last Maharaja of Patiala.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khanna, Aditya
1971 births
Living people
Khanna family
Punjabi Hindus
Businesspeople from Delhi
Indian restaurateurs
Indian investment bankers
Indian technology company founders
Indian investors
Indian online retailer founders
Indian Internet company founders
Indian businesspeople in mining
Indian real estate businesspeople
Indian businesspeople in insurance
Indian Premier League franchise owners
Railway entrepreneurs
Businesspeople in agriculture
Businesspeople in the hospitality industry
Businesspeople in transport
Businesspeople in electricity
Businesspeople in construction
Sports businesspeople
Indian philanthropists
People educated at Millfield