Two former venture capital Sequoia Capital managing directors V T Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago are joining hands to launch a new ₹2,000 crore ($291 million) investment firm, A91 partners. The new firm will be looking to invest in companies across sectors including consumer, healthcare, financial services, and technology.
A91 Partners plans to start investing from next year in series B startups by cutting cheques of $10-30 million.
Talking about the new partnership, V T Bharadwaj, said, “Gautam and I believe this is the right time for us to be embarking on an entrepreneurial journey in the investment business. We want to be active meaningful long-term partners in the best emerging small- and mid-sized private companies in India.”
The duo had previously worked at McKinsey before their decade-long stint at Sequoia Capital. They have been part of some of the major investments including Prataap Snacks, Hector Beverages, Star Health Insurance, Oyo Rooms, Indigo Paints, and Ola Cabs among others.
Back in 2011, four Sequoia executives of India unit, Sumir Chadha, K P Balaraj, Sandeep Singhal and S K Jain had resurrected WestBridge Capital as a primary public markets fund.
In recent years there have been quite a few executives leaving big investment firms to go their own way. Recently in 2016, three senior executives from Helion Venture Partners, Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri had come together to launch the now popular Stellaris Venture Partners, a fund focused on technology-based startups.
Among others, Rishi Navani, co-founder & MD at Matrix Partners, quit to launch Epiq Capital, a growth and later stage technology investment firm.
Fireside Ventures was launched by Kanwaljit Singh, a founding partner at Helion Venture Partners.
Also in 2016, Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain, fund managers from SAIF Partners had formed Pravega Ventures.
There has been a flurry of investments in the Indian market, focused on the technology industry. The returns on the latest investments are yet to be tested.