Who is Manoj Kohli, former Bharti Airtel executive onboarded to fintech Alt DRX’s Advisory Board?

Manoj Kohli, the former MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel, has joined fintech Alt DRX's Advisory Board as a non-director advisor, the company said in a release today, on 6 May. India's first tokenised digital real estate marketplace, the company said it seeks to assemble “one of the most formidable self-governance walls in Indian fintech.”

The other significant names on Alt DRX's advisory board include Ananth Ravi, a Reliance Industries veteran; Ganesh Balasubramanian, ex-Chairman of HSBC Technologies India; GN Bajpai, former LIC and SEBI Chairman; Jitender Balakrishnan, ex-DMD of IDBI; and Richard Rekhy, ex-CEO of KPMG India.

Manoj Kohli's addition to Alt DRX's advisory board

According to the release, Kohli's leadership across the telecom, tech, renewable energy, and digital innovation spaces “brings an unparalleled depth of strategic and operational advisory expertise to Alt DRX”.

“Kohli has been at the epicentre of every major digital wave in India over the past two decades,” it added.

Bajpai in the statement said that Alt DRX’s Advisory Board has been assembled on one principle — “bringing together minds who have actually built institutions, scaled markets, and shaped policy, rather than merely observed them”. He added that Kohli embodies this combination with strategic and operational depth needed by the “young” company.

“As the Chair of Alt DRX’s Advisory Board, I warmly welcome him and look forward to the wisdom he will bring to this exciting journey of building India’s most trusted tokenised digital asset marketplace,” Bajpai added.

Who is Manoj Kohil? Here's all you need to know

Kohli has previously served as MD and CEO of telecom giant Bharti Airtel. At the company, he scaled operations across 20 countries, growing the subscriber base from 2 million to over 400 million.

A veteran with 44 years of professional experience, after Airtel, he was Country Head of SoftBank India, where he oversaw over $15 billion in investments across companies including Flipkart, Meesho, Ola, Oyo, Swiggy and Zomato. At present, he advises CEOs and founders across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and the United States.

In the release, Kohli called housing the “most aspirational asset class in India”, adding that it still remains out of reach for many. “Tokenisation appears to have the potential to change that arithmetic permanently — not as a speculative instrument, but as an asset anchored access to qualified real estate. I am delighted to contribute my experience to guide them scale this mission across India and globally,” he added.

About the company: Alt DRX

Alt DRX is India’s first D2C asset tokenisation marketplace and the first fintech to be licensed for asset tokenisation outside India, i.e. by the Qatar Financial Centre as a Token Service Provider, enabling B2B use cases in the Middle East. It uses algorithmic pricing, instant settlements and blockchain ledgers, as per the release.

The statement added that Alt DRX is in the process of obtaining consent from IFSCA, India’s unified financial services regulator at GIFT City, to tokenise USD denominated offshore assets.

The company operates at an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of around ₹35 crore, and processes nearly 4,25,000 transactions per year. It raised close to ₹45 crore in growth capital from marquee global and Indian investors, the release said.

The startup was recognised as India’s 10 Tech Innovators by HDFC Capital and won the Best WealthTech Platform award at the Global Fintech Fest 2025.

Disclaimer: Hindustan Media Ventures is an investor in Alt DRX.