Meet the Team
We're a group of passionate internet entrepreneurs whose lives have been deeply influenced by yoga. We believe yoga can democratise happiness and the internet democratises information, at the intersection of the two lies Shvasa.
Arunima is the Founder & CEO of Shvasa. She was the cofounder and COO of babyoye.com which raised approx $20mn in funding from Accel Partners and Tiger Global, which was later acquired by The Mahindra Group. She was also a Vice President at Infoedge India - a successfully listed Internet company. Arunima is a Master Yoga & Meditation teacher with over 2000 hrs of practice and 1000 hrs of teaching Yoga. Her two passions are yoga and the internet.
Namaste! For me Shvasa is about enabling people to make yoga a part of their daily routine. It is the only way it will work in changing your life. All Kundalini & Chakras and Yogic texts are great, however you can understand them only if your life becomes better today. If you are able to be disease free, fitter and rise above life’s stresses and anxieties and work with your highest ability. This is the biggest outcome of doing a daily yoga class, you get disciplined, more grounded and focused and then drop everything that’s not necessary.
At Shvasa we believe that breath is the vehicle for prana or your vital life force and every practice whether it is a yoga class, meditation or pranayama focuses on conscious breathing. As a result you start breathing through your nose and then immunity happens quite naturally, it did for me. Your higher brain centres get activated and then knowledge or what’s written in yogic texts is something you remember, not something you have to struggle to understand when you read it. You also need not run after or seek knowledge. At shvasa we attempt to cut the mystery and clutter around Yoga and Meditation and help you connect to the present moment.
Another huge aim we have is to enable yoga teachers in India, who are fantastic and have dedicated their lives to yoga, earn a sustainable income and raise their salary levels. What they teach you is a way to connect to yourself and live an amazing and happy life.
Vikalp Jain is the Co-Founder and CTO of Shvasa. He is a graduate from IIT Mumbai and prior to Shvasa he was the Founder of Acadgild - India's leading skilling platform. AcadGild was consistently rated as Top 10 Online Technology Bootcamps. Prior to AcadGild, He was also the CTO and co-founder at FlipClass.
Before I tell you about my fulfilling relationship with Prayanama, here’s a bit about the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga. Prana meaning “vital life force”, and Yama, meaning to gain control, therefore the practice requires one to focus on the breath that leads to elevation of life energies. Now, about my journey- I am a pass out of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Mumbai, one of the premier engineering institutes in Asia), and I have been working with technology and science for more than 20 years. I also founded an e-learning company. Yet, there is nothing like yoga that shaped me.
I suffered chronic throat infection and allergies for a long time. That's when someone recommended pranayama and that changed everything for the better. Within a few months of starting the practice, my throat improved. In the next six month, the allergies were as good as gone. That was 15 years ago, and I still practice it today.
When I met Arunima and Sumukh, I knew I was going to be part of the team for I had experienced the power of pranayama myself. I am super-excited to be part of Shvasa, to take this healing experience to the world. Hello, Shvasa! Hello, world!
Sumukh Shetty runs Product at Shvasa! A product builder at heart - has been deeply influenced by yoga over the years. He wants to productise knowledge that's been compounded over centuries in India and strongly believes that this can make the world a happier place.
As a young kid, I was exposed to yoga and meditation forcefully. This didn’ treally have much impact on me, or at least I didn’t perceive it at the time.
As I grew older, I thought material wealth would make me happier, which was true to an extent. I used material wealth to explore the outward world but also started an inward journey. That inner journey was replete with existential questions as well as questions about the deeper meaning or purpose of life. What is the meaning of life? What is the source of happiness? I was seeking answers.
Little did I know, that my ancestors had found some answers to these questions already. And my parents had exposed me to a path that was soon shown to me again.
In random happenstance, I joined a hacker boot camp called Jaaga, which had yoga and meditation sessions every morning. It was one of my most productive and creative periods personally. I kept walking that path. It led me to the very powerful Vipassana meditation. It entails observation of the senses that ultimately starts you on the path of self-exploration. The experience was pure bliss. I hadn’t experienced the profound sense of peace and calm in anything else.
Pradeep is the Global Head of Yoga at Shvasa. He is currently pursuing his studies in Yoga texts, Ayurveda and modern Neuroscience. Pradeep successfully built a chain of yoga studios in Bangalore which was later acquired by a major Health/Fitness brand. He currently resides in Mysore, a heritage city with a close connection to Yoga traditions.
Pradeep Sattwamaya (Deep) had the blessed opportunity to be accepted as a disciple by his guru, ParamhamsaSwami Niranjanananda Saraswati ( In the Sanyasa lineage of Shri AdiShankara, Swami Swami Sivananda, Swami Satyananda ). Pradeep spend two full years living and imbibing yoga at Gangadarshan, a traditional Yoga gurukula along the banks of river Ganga in Bihar. He completed first 12 year phase of discipleship in 2016. Pradeep has also practiced and closely studied the Mysore Astanga Yoga and Iyengar Yoga.
He started practicing yoga as a seven year old, learning some simple classic asanas from his father. Post an engineering degree, devoted full time to studying yoga, graduating from M.Sc. Applied Yogic sciences (from the world’s first yoga university, Bihar Yoga Bharati, Munger, India, with a university gold medal). He has been teaching yoga in India, Europe and South East Asia, training and mentoring over 2000 budding yoga teachers since 2006.
Pradeep sattwamaya is the Global head of Yoga at Shvasa.com and responsible for design and training of all yoga formats at Shvasa.
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