CAs are often overlooked by VC or PE firms for MBAs. This group of CAs are on a mission to change that.

• 1949 is a close-knit community of Chartered Accountants (CAs) in Private Equity, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, and Consulting.
• Its founders are on a mission to build an alumni network for CAs.
• Here’s how the members can collaborate and support each other in achieving professional goals.

How CAs Are Thriving in Venture Capital and Private Equity

Generally venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms tend to hire a higher percentage of MBA graduates. 

Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity funds only used to hire from The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Bombay), one of the top technical universities in the world.

But in 2020, something unusual happened, they hired their first Chartered Accountant (CA Divyansh Jain) after almost a decade. Now out of a team of 11 junior members, 5 are CAs.

It’s not just restricted to funds, as CAs today are founders of as many as six unicorns at least in India. Despite this, the figure is still relatively low.

Let’s imagine if CAs from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) had a network of like-minded alumni. 

How would their career trajectory turn out to be?

What is 1949  

1949 is a closely-knit community of Chartered Accountants in India.

It is on a mission to build a network of CAs, working in the space of Private Equity, Venture Capital, Investment Banking, and Consulting. 

Why 1949 you may ask?

Well, as you’ve probably guessed, it is named after the year when ICAI was established under the Chartered Accountants Act, of 1949.

1949 is here to provide CAs with insights into what’s happening in those spaces. It is a platform to network and share knowledge in those fields, not just online but offline as well.

According to its founders, 1949 is not another online community. They have brought new energy to the CA community.

They want CAs to collaborate and support each other in achieving professional goals.

So far they have hosted 8 offline mixers (Professional gatherings) in the last eight months for finance and startup professionals.

All these events are paid and you have to register for a waitlist.

In addition, they have,

• Launched a publication called 1949 Insider which brings insights from practitioners in private equity and venture capital.
• They built 3 teams – one for consumer, one for fintech, both of which publish long-form articles, and one for sector bulletins that covers what’s happening in the world.
• Launched a job board for Finance Professionals.  

The Founders of 1949

Dhruvin Mehta – He is a Chartered Accountant with over 7 years of cross-border and domestic investment banking experience. He has executed multiple M&A and fundraising transactions with market leaders and challengers across the consumer, manufacturing, and chemical sectors.

Apart from being a Co-founder in 1949, he is into venture investments at Pravega Ventures, an early-stage Venture Capital fund.

CA Srinidhi Chari –  She is Co-founder at the 1949 and an Investment Analyst at Pravega Ventures.

Srinidhi previously worked as a Credit Analyst with Crisil. She also has served as the Lead financial analyst in an SME where she discovered her passion for creating value and growing businesses.

CA Tushar Khandelwal – He is a Co-founder of 1949 and the Founder of Sigma91, a talent incubator (backed by Emergent Ventures)

He started his investment banking career at 18 with a top consulting firm. Later he joined the JP Morgan Investment Banking team at age 20. Tushar even helped establish two i-banking operations from scratch.

Closing…

Chartered Accountants can add great value to Venture Capital or Private Equity firms as part of their team.

CAs possess valuable financial expertise and analytical skills that can help VC firms in evaluating potential investment opportunities and manage their portfolio companies.

However, it’s worth noting that joining a VC or PE firm typically requires additional skills such as networking, deal sourcing, and entrepreneurship, which may not necessarily be part of a CA’s core expertise.

That is why it is crucial that you as a CA acquire those skill sets in advance.

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