Anshu Prasher, who worked as a director at venture debt provider Innoven Capital India, has quit the firm. As per the reports, he will now be joining Saama Capital as its principal.
He is expected to join Saama Capital — the venture capital firm that has backed companies like Paytm and Snapdeal, by the end of this month, confirms a company spokesperson. The expansion plan for Saama Capital comes after the firm closed its third fund at ₹390 crore ($58 million) earlier this year.
Saama Capital is led by co-founders and managing partners Ash Lilani and Suresh Shanmugham, along with partner Kiranbir Nag. Anshu Prasher holds an MBA from IIM-Lucknow and joined Innoven in 2013 after stints at Kotak Mahindra and Citi India.
This marks the third major exit of an executive from InnoVen Capital. Earlier this year, the firm’s CEO Ajay Hattangdi and deputy CEO Vinod Murali had left the platform earlier this year to start their own firm — Alteria Capital, with ₹1,000 crore fund.
After the firm’s co-founders and chief executives quit, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek appointed Chin Chao, CEO of InnoVen Singapore and Southeast Asia, as interim CEO for India. Meanwhile, the firm is looking for a head to oversee operations in India.
Hattangdi and Murali were earlier with Citibank and launched US-based Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) venture lending operations here in 2008. It was then rebranded as InnoVen Capital as a result of being acquired by Temasek Holdings in 2015. It claims to be India’s first and largest venture debt provider to venture capital backed start-ups in India across stages of growth and sectors.
The venture debt fund Innoven Capital has lent funding to some of the largest startups like Byju’s, Swiggy, OYO Rooms, Practo, Snapdeal and Pepperfry with total investments worth Rs 1,500 crore.