Arderra was founded by an operator who has built teams from the inside — not as a recruiter observing from the outside, but as the person accountable for the outcome.

Before founding Arderra, Kugan Sakthikugan was the first talent hire at 9fin, joining at Seed and scaling through a $23m Series A led by Spark Capital. He led talent at FINBOURNE Technology from Series A through a £55m Series B co-led by Highland Europe and AXA Venture Partners. Earlier, he co-founded Riverdale Healthcare, a PE-backed business backed by Apposite Capital — raising £20m and personally assembling the leadership team.

Kugan has sat on both sides of the table. He understands what it costs to make the wrong hire at a critical moment and what the right one compounds into.