An academician at heart and a serial entrepreneur by profession, driven by ethics, sustainability, and a commitment to creating positive social impact. Ankit Gupta is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, IIM-A, and UCLA. He is the Vice President of ASPA (the Voice of the anti-counterfeiting and authentication industry) and has spoken at more than 30 events and conferences on the topic of Authentication.

Ankit is a computer science engineer, followed by an MBA from UCLA, where he won the prestigious Larry Wolfen Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit in 2006. He also pursued an exchange program at IIM Ahmedabad, earning alumni status at both institutions. He later completed the Owner/President Management (OPM) program at Harvard Business School, becoming a distinguished member of the Harvard alumni. Notably, he has served as the President of the UCLA Anderson Alumni Association (Delhi Chapter). Post-MBA, he launched his entrepreneurial journey with a venture in the hospitality sector, founding the popular restaurant brand ‘Mocha’ in Delhi. The café quickly gained popularity, becoming a go-to destination for the city’s youth and coffee lovers. He successfully ran and scaled the business for four years before exiting in 2012-13, marking his first successful business exit.

Throughout his 15+ year career, Ankit has founded three companies and successfully exited one in hospitality, while actively managing ventures in real estate development, chemical trading, and packaging. Driven by ethics, sustainability, and positive societal impact, he currently leads the Holostik Group, which operates across sectors including anti-counterfeiting technologies, packaging, chemicals, real estate, biodegradable products, and digital technology—all with the core objective of “Creating a Better Tomorrow.” The group’s flagship company, Holostik India Limited, combats counterfeiting in over 90 countries and supports 10,000+ brands, having positively impacted over 20 crore lives.

His recent ventures include NaturTrust, a compostable packaging company, and Utopia Digitech, a digital solutions provider. He has collaborated with Microsoft, Ashoka University, and Indian School of Business (ISB) and has served on the Board of Patrons for the AIM Smart City Accelerator Program, where he mentors emerging start-ups.