The big venture capital movements in 2021

Mumbai: 2021 was one the most active years for India’s venture capital sector,
in terms of funds raised and capital deployed by investors, as ET reported.

The year has also been busy with people movement. The churn was largely driven by top executives seeking better opportunities in international investment vehicles or branching out on their own. Alok Goel – who led investments in some of the largest consumer tech unicorns at Elevation Capital started his own entrepreneurial journey while others moved and joined international funds getting aggressive about India.

Here’s a list of the big moves in the Indian venture capital community.

■ Ravinder Singh, Kalaari Capital

Singh was roped in by Kalaari Capital earlier this year as a partner to lead investments in the deep tech domain. Singh comes with over a decade of experience in technology across large conglomerates. Before Kalaari, Singh was the chief information and innovation officer at Tata Singapore Airlines (Air Vistara) for five years.

■ Sandeep Bapat, Trifecta Capital

Bapat came to Trifecta Capital, known for its debt funding platform as a partner in its growth equity vertical. At his former employer Hong Kong-based Hillhouse, Bapat invested across technology, consumer, and financial services sectors in leading Indian startups like Swiggy, Udaan, Sharechat, and CRED, among others.

■ Shilpa Kulkarni, Panthera Growth

Kulkarni founded Zodius Capital Advisors, an early investor in startups like online furniture retailer Pepperfry and grocery etailer BigBasket, in 2010, which was later acquired by Avendus Capital. Kulkarni joined Panthera Growth, a growth investment firm based in Singapore, as a managing partner this year.

■ Alok Goel, DriveTrain

Goel led investments at Elevation Capital in startups like Meesho, Toppr, and Unacademy, before founding his own venture DriveTrain this year. The startup provides planning and monitoring software to businesses. Goel return to the other side isn’t surprising as he held top positions at startups like Freecharge and RedBus earlier.

■ Anjana Sasidharan, L Catterton

After spending close to a decade at Sequoia Capital India, Sasidharan moved to private equity major L Catterton to head their India and Southeast Asia growth investments. She has served as a non-executive director on the company boards of Eruditus, Wingreens Farms, Medgenome, Vini Cosmetics among others. L Catterton invests in consumer brands and has $30 billion of assets under management

■ Sanjot Malhi, Tybourne Capital

Malhi moved to Tybourne Capital, a hedge fund based in Hong Kong, after spending over half a decade at Matrix Partners India. Tybourne Capital invests invest across the consumer, financials, technology, media, telecommunications, and industrial sectors across the Asia Pacific region.

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