Our Leadership

We are a team of doers, listeners, and fighters — led by people who’ve lived the SME journey.

Our leadership combines decades of ground-level experience with a shared mission: to level the playing field for small and medium businesses globally.

Our Core Leadership

Founder & CEO

Murugesan Dhanapal

With over 25 years of hands-on experience in India’s B2B digital landscape, Murugesan has been a driving force behind the evolution of how small and medium businesses go online. His leadership journey began at IndiaMART and TradeIndia, where he rose from a frontline sales role to strategic leadership, directly engaging with thousands of SMEs across sectors.

Through over 30,000 hours of real-world consultation with 10,000+ business owners, he identified a clear need: SMEs do not just need visibility, they need a reliable partner to grow, scale, and stay relevant in a changing world. Pepagora is his answer, a platform shaped by ground-level realities and built to deliver real outcomes, not just digital promises. Murugesan is known for translating deep field insight into practical innovation that simplifies growth for businesses across India, the UAE, and beyond.

Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer (CPO)

Gopi Mani

Gopi is the product mind behind Pepagora, having envisioned and led the platform’s creation from concept to full-scale execution. With over 15 years of experience in digital transformation and a strong combination of strategic depth and operational discipline, he plays a central role in shaping the platform’s product direction towards value addition for SMEs. An engineer by thinking and a business graduate from Ohio University, Gopi brings a clear understanding of both technology and business. With empowered more than 1000 businesses across sectors to grow through technology. He leads the end-to-end product lifecycle from roadmap planning to go-to-market execution.Gopi’s ability to align cross-functional teams, maintain product integrity, and drive execution at scale has been instrumental in establishing Pepagora’s foundation as a growth platform for SMEs.

Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Rajat Gelra

Rajat operationalizes Pepagora’s vision, building the corporate backbone spanning finance, legal, and talent acquisition required for rapid, global scale. A hands-on leader with deep experience in scaling businesses, he spearheads mission-critical initiatives, from establishing our international compliance frameworks to building out the high-performance sales organization that drives our growth. Rajat translates strategic goals into a scalable, bankable business model, ensuring that Pepagora's expansion is not just fast, but built on a foundation of operational excellence and disciplined execution.

Chief Experience Officer (CXO)

Aijaz Husain

Aijaz is the architect of the Pepagora experience, responsible for translating powerful technology into simple, intuitive, and elegant interfaces. He leads our UX/UI teams with a core mission: to make sophisticated business growth tools accessible to every SME, regardless of their technical expertise. By crafting a seamless and human-centered design system, Aijaz ensures that the Pepagora platform is not just functional, but a genuine pleasure to use. His work builds trust at first glance and empowers our customers by making complexity feel effortless.

Our Advisory Board

Strategic Advisor | Venture Capital & Global Markets

Keshav Kondamuri

Keshav is a seasoned global investor and strategist with over 35 years of experience scaling startups into multi-billion-dollar enterprises. With a track record of raising over $1.5 billion in funding and guiding more than 50 companies through successful exits, he brings unparalleled expertise in international finance, venture capital, and strategic partnerships. Keshav’s deep experience across Europe, the USA, and Asia provides Pepagora with invaluable insights on building a platform for global scale and fostering high-growth ecosystems.

Strategic Advisor | Technology & Innovation

Karthik Vyas

Karthik is a 3X entrepreneur and technology innovator with deep, hands-on experience in building and scaling technology startups. As a mentor at T-Hub, one of India's largest incubators, and a founder in the AI, Blockchain, and mIOT sectors, he possesses a unique understanding of the startup journey. Karthik advises Pepagora on product innovation, go-to-market strategy for emerging technologies, and building a platform that truly resonates with the ambitions of modern, tech-savvy entrepreneurs.

Strategic Advisor | Trust & Financial Governance

CA Rishi Aggarwal

Rishi is a seasoned audit and assurance partner with over 15 years of experience at "Big Four" firms, including EY and Deloitte, across the UAE, India, and the USA. He specializes in financial governance, international compliance (IFRS), and risk management. Rishi’s expertise is fundamental to the Pepagora Trust Center, guiding our strategy on building a world-class framework for business verification, financial integrity, and cross-border compliance, ensuring our platform is built on a foundation of measurable trust.