Sandeep Walunj appointed chief growth officer at Equirus Group

Equirus Group, a diversified financial services conglomerate, has appointed Sandeep Walunj as its chief growth officer. In this role, Walunj will be responsible for shaping and executing the group’s growth agenda, sharpening its corporate identity and consolidating synergies across its various businesses. The appointment comes as Equirus scales operations across multiple financial services verticals.

As chief growth officer, Walunj’s mandate includes aligning growth priorities across group companies, strengthening brand coherence and enabling collaboration to support long-term value creation. His role is expected to bring greater integration between businesses as the group expands its presence across investment banking, wealth and asset management, broking, lending and insurance solutions.

Walunj is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and brings nearly three decades of professional experience across India and the Middle East and North Africa. His career spans business building and transformation assignments, with a focus on brand-led growth, product and process innovation, market expansion and digital sales and marketing. He has also worked extensively on strategic consumer segmentation and the application of data science and GenAI-led initiatives to drive growth outcomes.

A significant part of Walunj’s professional journey has been in the financial services sector. As a member of the financial literacy committee of the Association of Mutual Funds in India, he played a key role in spearheading the Mutual Funds Sahi Hai campaign. The initiative contributed to repositioning equity investing for Indian consumers and has supported sustained growth across the mutual fund and broking industries.

His contributions have been recognised through multiple industry honours, including CMO of the year awards in 2017, 2019 and 2023, and businessperson of the year in 2018. Alongside executive responsibilities, Walunj has remained actively engaged with the broader marketing and financial services ecosystem. His roles have included serving on the Asia-Pacific advisory board of the CMO Council in the US and as a member of the BFSI committee of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, west region.

Commenting on the appointment, Ajay Garg, managing director, Equirus Group, said, “We are pleased to welcome Sandeep to the Equirus Group at a stage when most of our businesses are poised for the next phase of growth. His wide-ranging experience across financial services, brand-led growth, and technology-driven transformation will add significant depth to our leadership team. We believe his global exposure and understanding of modern growth drivers will help us build stronger, more differentiated businesses.”

Walunj said the role presents an opportunity to build a cohesive and customer-first growth narrative across a diverse financial ecosystem. “Equirus offers a compelling opportunity to build meaningful, customer-first growth across a diverse financial ecosystem. My focus will be on creating a clear and consistent growth narrative, using data, technology, and collaboration across teams to unlock new opportunities. I look forward to drive long-term, sustainable growth,” he said.

Equirus Group operates as a full-service financial services firm with capabilities spanning investment banking, institutional securities, wealth and asset management, HNI broking, NBFC and insurance solutions. Over the past 18 years, the group has completed more than 315 transactions across mergers and acquisitions, private equity, IPOs, QIPs, rights issues and structured finance, raising USD 15 billion across sectors. The appointment of a chief growth officer reflects the group’s focus on integration, scalability and differentiated value creation as it enters its next phase of expansion.