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India, February 2026: In a business era increasingly defined by speed, scale, and disruption, few leaders succeed in balancing growth with grounding. Sandeep Agarwal, Founder & CEO of SutraNova Ventures Pvt. Ltd., has been recognised as one of the Most Influential Leaders in Business 2026 by GlobalBiz Outlook, an honour that reflects not only his professional achievements, but the philosophy of purpose-led leadership he represents.
Headquartered in Bengaluru and founded in 2025, SutraNova Ventures is the culmination of nearly three decades of Agarwal’s experience across global engineering, enterprise transformation, IPO journeys, and ecosystem building. The recognition underscores his belief that scale without purpose is unsustainable, and innovation without empathy is incomplete.
“True leadership is not about moving faster than others, but about moving forward without losing your values,” says Agarwal. “Influence comes when growth is aligned with clarity, courage, and conscience.”
A Leadership Journey Forged Across Global Enterprises
Agarwal’s career spans some of the most defining chapters of modern technology and enterprise growth. Beginning in 1995, at Tata Unisys in SEEPZ, Mumbai, and later at Lucent/Bell Labs in the United States, he gained early exposure to resilient systems, global delivery models, and engineering excellence, experiences that shaped his conviction that technology must ultimately serve people.
His return to India marked a defining chapter at Mindtree, where he spent over a decade building and scaling Hi-Tech and Product Engineering practices, managing Fortune 1000 relationships, and contributing strategically to the company’s IPO journey and acquisitions. This phase refined his understanding of scale, where vision must be matched with execution and ambition tempered with discipline.
At Happiest Minds, Agarwal served as COO – Digital Business Services, spearheading ER&D and IoT practices, leading strategic M&A initiatives, and contributing to the organisation’s successful IPO. Reflecting on this phase, he notes, “IPO journeys and large-scale transformations test more than strategy, they test leadership character. They taught me that clarity is the ultimate accelerator, especially in moments of uncertainty.”
His later role as Global CTO & Managing Director at Visionet Systems saw him build a Global Capability Center from the ground up, scaling it to over 750 professionals while advancing GenAI, Data & AI, Cybersecurity, and ESG programs, and fostering open innovation across academia and industry.
From Corporate Scale to Purpose-Led Venture Building
Founding SutraNova Ventures was not a pivot, but an evolution. Agarwal envisioned a venture catalyst that would help founders move from seed to scale without losing their essence. Built on its THREAD values: Trust, Harmony, Resilience, Empathy, Acceleration, and Discovery, SutraNova blends strategy, technology, and human values to support startups across GTM acceleration, GCC creation, investor connectivity, M&A, and AI-first scaling.
The firm’s long-term vision is ambitious yet grounded: empowering over 100 entrepreneurs, creating 10,000 jobs, and enabling USD 1 billion in cumulative revenues by 2030, while remaining deeply human at its core.
Recognition Rooted in Impact, Not Visibility
The GlobalBiz Outlook recognition builds on a series of recent accolades that reinforce Agarwal’s influence in the global business and technology ecosystem. In 2024, he was featured among the Most Influential Business Leaders by The Enterprise World and recognised as the Most Inspiring CTO of India by Insights Success. He is also a recipient of the Indian Achievers Award, a Certified Independent Director, and the author of PRIDE (2018), a value-driven guide for young professionals navigating modern careers.
Agarwal actively contributes to industry leadership through roles with NASSCOM councils, BCIC ICT Chapter, USIBC, IESA, and as a Board Member at TiE Bangalore (2025–2027).
As SutraNova Ventures enters its next phase, launching global innovation hubs, AI-first acceleration programs, and cross-border GCC frameworks, this recognition reinforces what many in the ecosystem already acknowledge: Sandeep Agarwal is not merely building ventures; he is shaping a more conscious, future-ready model of leadership
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