The Via Team

Vinay Gupta Co Founder & CEO

Vinay Gupta is the dynamic young visionary and founder of Via (formerly Flightraja). His persistent pursuit to create seamless travel in India led to the formation of India's largest Travel Services Company. In the very first year of its inception Via has become the topmost Travel Company with a network of 20000 agents in 1200 cities of India. Its current annual turnover is USD 500 million. With its unique B2B model and dedicated services to the travel industry Via is creating a silent revolution in the travel sector in India.

A professional turned entrepreneur, he has previously held prominent senior management positions with leading multinational companies in the United States. His previous assignments include consultancies in the Risk Management business with Credit Suisse, First Boston in New York and consultancies with Citibank NA, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and BMW.

Vinay holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Computer Science from SV University and is presently pursuing CFA from the CFA Institute of America. He is a Member of the CFA Institute of America.

Amit Aggarwal Co Founder and CTO

Amit Aggarwal has a background from the automotive industry having worked in Ford and Daimler Chrysler. He has worked as the head of Metrics and Data analytics for their retail website. He is keen about data analytics and metric space and has extensive knowledge of front end technologies.

Amit is a Computer Science Graduate from IIT, Roorkee, where he topped his class and has been awarded the President of India Gold Medal for versatility and overall excellence.

Prem Pradeep, Executive Director

After graduating from IIT Delhi in Mechanical Engineering and from IIM Kolkata with an MBA, Prem has worked in diverse industries in various capacities and leadership positions, in India and US. Among the companies he has worked for are Telco, Pepsico India, Arvind Mills, RPG Group and more recently Bharti Airtel, where he was CEO for the South Hub for over 3 years and subsequently CEO, Bharti Infratel Limited, for over 2 years before joining us. During his career spanning almost 3 decades, Prem has worked with many start up operations, and has significant experience in defining strategy and building teams, businesses and organizations from scratch.

Sujit Naha, CFO

Sujit brings with him more than 17 years of rich and varied experience of working in a wide spectrum of industries ranging from FMCG, Health Care, Manufacturing and Service Industries. He has an exhaustive experience in the areas of Accounting, Planning and MIS, Supply Chain Management and Commercial roles with great exposure to setting up green field projects.

Prior to joining Via, Sujit was the CFO of Manipal Health Systems the health care arm of Manipal Group which operates and manages 14 hospitals across India. Prior to that he has held key roles at Reckitt Benckiser Ltd, Arvind Brands and Voltas.

A.G.K.Kumar, Vice President - Global Alliances

A.G.K.Kumar hails from the Airline , Travel & Tourism Industry with nearly 3 decades of rich & varied experience in India & Overseas in Various domain fields such as Corporate Travel , Leisure out bound , International Inbound & Domestic Tourism , Tourist Charter flight & cruise Ship operations , MICE & Medical Tourism .He had successful senior Management assignments with leading global & Indian Travel MNCs.

A.G.K. Kumar has held several Industry and government appointed committee positions .A domain expert in various fields of the Travel & Tourism Industry , he was instrumental in introducing & innovating various good practices, strategies and process for revenue / yield management, ensuring quality and customer delight and have received various awards for and from the Organizations served.

Manoj Manicketh, Vice President - Sales Operations

Manoj has an illustrious career in Sales having worked with organizations like Eureka Forbes, Ranutrol, Sterling Holidays, Xerox India, Reliance Telecomm and Bharti Airtel. Prior to joining us he was the Vice President Operations with Airtel in Mumbai. He has 24 years of varied and exhaustive experience in the areas of Sales and Marketing in the diverse industries.

V. Swaminathan - Vice President Online Business

Swaminathan has been responsible for large business operations across multiple geographies which include India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, S.Korea, Nepal etc. He has extensive experience in online business, affiliate marketing, network management and new project rollouts. He has sucessfully pitched for and managed sensitive Government outsourcing initiatives for American, Australian, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Indian Government.

He is responsible for new business initiatives, managing the operations and online related activities in VIA.

Rajeev Goswami - CEO Via Stay

Rajeev Goswami has 18 year + experience of business leadership experience in building large businesses serving global customers. He has widely travelled across the world and handled customers in various geographies. Prior to joining Via Rajeev was founder CEO of high end consulting startup Shore Consulting in the US market. Earlier Rajeev was CEO of CATS, Computer associates (CA) Joint venture in India . Prior to joining CA he was as General Manager(Exports) of IBM Global Services.

Rajeev is management graduate from FMS-University of Delhi and Global Advanced Management Program (GAMP) at Kellogg School of Management, USA. He holds Bachelor of Engineering degree from NIT, Bhopal. He is well networked in corporate world, Industry Forum and startups. He is a chartered member of TiE Bangalore. He enjoys working with startups and helps them in product, go to market strategies.

Shobha Shankar - COO Via Stay

Shobha Shankar has more than 16 years + of experience in the Industry. Shobha has strong skills and experience in Sales and Marketing in global arena. She has successfully sold to large clients in US and is known for her innovative approach to marketing. Prior to joining Via, Shobha successfully founded high end consulting venture, Shore consulting in US Market where she was responsible for Sales. Shobha's earlier assignment was with CATS , Computer Associates JV in India as Director Services. Earlier she was in IBM USA as a Business Manager.

Shobha is a management graduate from the Xavier Institute, India. She is well networked in Industry and participates in many industry forum including Women business forum. She actively works with startup communities and helps them in customer acquisition strategies.

Sridhar G - Head Via Labs

Sridhar is a web evangelist,one who brings innovation to a new spectrum along with his expertise in building Location Based Services,Mobile applications and strong communication skills. A post graduate in Internet Technology from University of Greenwich (London) and currently pursuing his PhD in Location Based Services, Sri brings in work experience from Multinational companies across different geographies and also founded a startup in Bangalore. A energetic and a person with high Entrepreneurial spirit, Sri specializes in Location Based Services and at VIA he is responsible in building Mobile Platforms for existing product lines and scaling them to reach mass user-base and every growing demand of Mobile Applications.

Sheshgiri Kamath - Head Business Development

A young and dynamic leader, Sheshgiri is a Licensed Commercial Pilot with a penchant for perfection. He heads VIA's Domestic and International Airlines relationships management with Airline Companies.

He is a Science Graduate and has worked for ITC Group, Manipal Group and Tommy Hilfiger

Anil Reddy - Head iviaworld

Anil comes with over 14 years of experience in the Travel, Leisure & Hospitality Industry with hands on knowledge of Travel & Leisure Operations and Hospitality Industry. As Head - iViaworld, Anil is responsible for creating a powerful product suite of accommodation solutions in India. The focus is on creation of a range of accommodation solutions that includes Serviced Apartments and Hotels in all categories.

Anil is a post graduate in Sales & Marketing from Osmania University. He has held senior positions in Product Management and Business Development with some of the well-known names in the Travel, Leisure & Hospitality domain.

Surya Prakash - Financial Controller

Soft spoken yet firm, Surya makes the difference when it comes to handling commercials at VIA. He previously headed Finance for the R&D division of ABB. He is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Shanti Jain - Head Domestic Business

A young and hardworking MBA from IIPM, Bangalore, Shanti Jain is also tech savvy and spends many hours on the VIA support system ensuring that the best service and back up is given to the vaste VIA network of Agents across the country.

Yogesh Mehta - National Network Manager

A young and enterprising leader with experience in selling travel products over the last 5 years. Yogesh is constantly refining and executing processes, and utilizing the organization's resources optimally to achieve maximum growth. Yogesh has an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the travel industry and its integration with ecommerce.

Anand Rajpurohit - Head of Buses and Via Retail

Anand has been with Via since the last two and a half years and has been instrumental in setting up Via's agent network nationally. He was also responsible for building the bus business and then LTC business.

Before joining Via Anand was working with Bharati Airtel as an Account Manager in their Enterprise solutions group.

Anand Nair - Head Leisure and Business Solutions

Anand comes with over 18 years of experience in the Travel & Leisure Industry with hands on knowledge of multiple facets of the business - Travel Consolidation, Corporate Travel Management, Leisure Travel Management and Travel Technology. He has held senior positions in Business Development, Business Operations and Profit Center Management. He has rich international exposure and is well versed with multiple dimensions of the Travel & Leisure Business. He has worked with some of the well-known names in the Travel, Leisure & Technology domain like Air Travel Enterprises, Thomson Tours & Travels, Great India Tour Company and IBS Software Services.

As Head Business Solutions & Leisure, Anand is responsible for the implementation of Via’s business strategy in Supplier Technology Solutions and Leisure Travel Space. The focus is on creation of a powerful technology backed business model where in Suppliers, Resellers and Consumers co-exist in a healthy, profitable and mutually beneficial ecosystem.

Anand is a graduate in Science (BS) from University of Kerala, India and has a Certification in Airline and Travel Agency Management, Fare Construction & Ticketing from Institute for Travel & Tourism Studies. He has also completed executive learning programs in Problem Analysis, Decision Making, Selling Skills and Sales Coaching Skills.