Global hedge fund Steadview Capital Management has appointed Maneesh Menon as its India director following the departure of Puneet Kumar, who left last October and subsequently joined Mirae Asset Venture as India CEO, multiple people in the know told ET.
“Steadview Capital has been bulking up its local investment team given its plans to launch an India-dedicated investment vehicle. It is looking to build a corpus of around $250-300 million,” one of the persons said, adding that the firm will focus on investments across consumer, artificial intelligence, and deeptech companies in their growth stage.
Apart from Menon, Steadview Capital also recently roped in Himanshu Jain as a principal in the India team. Jain joined the fund in January from early-stage investment firm Vertex Ventures.
Steadview has backed companies such as Zomato, Delhivery, Lenskart, Nykaa, and Innovaccer. It recently also participated in the $54-million seed round for Deepinder Goyal’s health-focussed wearable startup Temple.
Menon will join Steadview from Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures, which he left earlier this year. He was a principal at Eight Roads and led investments across software, enterprise, consumer, and fintech spaces at the firm.
“Maneesh primarily focussed on early stage investments at Eight Roads and this is an opportunity for him to work with later stage and potentially even public companies,” one of the sources said. Menon has worked with Eight Roads portfolio companies such as AssetPlus, Wint Wealth, and SaaS Labs.
Steadview Capital, responding to an email query sent by ET, confirmed his appointment. “Maneesh will be joining as a senior member in the investments team. In addition to Maneesh, Himanshu Jain has recently joined us as principal from Vertex Ventures,” the firm said.
Menon, who joined Eight Roads in 2020 from Bain Capital, did not respond to ET’s queries, nor did Eight Roads till the time of publishing. The firm, which has backed startups such as Shadowfax, MoEngage, Whatfix, and Exponent Energy, recently consolidated its Asia investment teams that have seen several senior level departures. Another Eight Roads principal, Kavish Kothari, joined Elev8 Venture Partners as a partner in January.
Menon’s move to Steadview Capital adds to the churn in the venture capital space. In fact, Kumar’s move to Mirae Asset Venture had come in the backdrop of the South Korean firm’s previous India CEO, Ashish Dave, stepping down. During Kumar’s tenure, Steadview had invested in over 30 private companies, including Eternal (then Zomato), Nykaa, Freshworks, Innovaccer, Chargebee, Ultrahuman, Atomberg, and MoEngage, and had seen nine portfolio companies go public.
Over the last 12-15 months, multiple senior investment executives and partners have exited their firms, including Peak XV Partners’ Shailesh Lakhani, Abheek Anand, and Harshjit Sethi, as well as B Capital’s Kabir Narang, Z47 managing director Pranay Desai, and General Catalyst’s Priya Mohan. Lakhani and Sethi have teamed up with another former Peak XV colleague Mayank Porwal to launch a $250-million early-stage investment firm, Ambition Capital, ET reported on March 16.
Further, Cisco Investments senior director Pankaj Mitra has joined Bessemer Venture Partners as a partner focussing on AI, enterprise technology, and cybersecurity investments in India, and Unilever executive vice president for corporate development, Vikram Kumaraswamy, joined L Catterton as partner and co-head of India, in August.
“Steadview Capital has been bulking up its local investment team given its plans to launch an India-dedicated investment vehicle. It is looking to build a corpus of around $250-300 million,” one of the persons said, adding that the firm will focus on investments across consumer, artificial intelligence, and deeptech companies in their growth stage.
Apart from Menon, Steadview Capital also recently roped in Himanshu Jain as a principal in the India team. Jain joined the fund in January from early-stage investment firm Vertex Ventures.
Steadview has backed companies such as Zomato, Delhivery, Lenskart, Nykaa, and Innovaccer. It recently also participated in the $54-million seed round for Deepinder Goyal’s health-focussed wearable startup Temple.
Menon will join Steadview from Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures, which he left earlier this year. He was a principal at Eight Roads and led investments across software, enterprise, consumer, and fintech spaces at the firm.
“Maneesh primarily focussed on early stage investments at Eight Roads and this is an opportunity for him to work with later stage and potentially even public companies,” one of the sources said. Menon has worked with Eight Roads portfolio companies such as AssetPlus, Wint Wealth, and SaaS Labs.
Steadview Capital, responding to an email query sent by ET, confirmed his appointment. “Maneesh will be joining as a senior member in the investments team. In addition to Maneesh, Himanshu Jain has recently joined us as principal from Vertex Ventures,” the firm said.
Menon, who joined Eight Roads in 2020 from Bain Capital, did not respond to ET’s queries, nor did Eight Roads till the time of publishing. The firm, which has backed startups such as Shadowfax, MoEngage, Whatfix, and Exponent Energy, recently consolidated its Asia investment teams that have seen several senior level departures. Another Eight Roads principal, Kavish Kothari, joined Elev8 Venture Partners as a partner in January.
Menon’s move to Steadview Capital adds to the churn in the venture capital space. In fact, Kumar’s move to Mirae Asset Venture had come in the backdrop of the South Korean firm’s previous India CEO, Ashish Dave, stepping down. During Kumar’s tenure, Steadview had invested in over 30 private companies, including Eternal (then Zomato), Nykaa, Freshworks, Innovaccer, Chargebee, Ultrahuman, Atomberg, and MoEngage, and had seen nine portfolio companies go public.
Over the last 12-15 months, multiple senior investment executives and partners have exited their firms, including Peak XV Partners’ Shailesh Lakhani, Abheek Anand, and Harshjit Sethi, as well as B Capital’s Kabir Narang, Z47 managing director Pranay Desai, and General Catalyst’s Priya Mohan. Lakhani and Sethi have teamed up with another former Peak XV colleague Mayank Porwal to launch a $250-million early-stage investment firm, Ambition Capital, ET reported on March 16.
Further, Cisco Investments senior director Pankaj Mitra has joined Bessemer Venture Partners as a partner focussing on AI, enterprise technology, and cybersecurity investments in India, and Unilever executive vice president for corporate development, Vikram Kumaraswamy, joined L Catterton as partner and co-head of India, in August.
