Steadview Capital appoints Maneesh Menon as India director
Global investment firm Steadview Capital Management has appointed Maneesh Menon as its India director, following the departure of Puneet Kumar who left in October last year to later join Mirae Asset Venture as India CEO, multiple people in the know told ET.
Menon will join Steadview Capital from Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures, which he left earlier this year. He was a principal at Eight Roads and led early-stage investments across software, enterprise, consumer and fintech spaces at the firm.
“Maneesh was primarily focusing on early stage investments at Eight Roads and this was an opportunity for him to work with later stage and potentially even public companies,” one of the persons cited above, said. Menon has worked with Eight Roads portfolio companies such as AssetPlus, Wint Wealth and SaaS Labs.
Apart from Menon, Steadview Capital also recently roped in Himanshu Jain as a principal in the India investment team. Jain joined Steadview in January from early-stage investment firm Vertex Ventures.
Steadview Capital, responding to an email query sent by ET, confirmed the development. “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.
Eight Roads also did not respond to an email query at 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 saw 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 a series of churn in the venture capital space. In fact, Puneet 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 Capital had invested in over 30 private companies, including Eternal (then Zomato), Nykaa, Freshworks, Innovaccer, Chargebee, Ultrahuman, Atomberg, and MoEngage. During this time, Steadview Capital’s private portfolio also saw nine 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.
Several investment executives also jumped to other companies. This includes Cisco Investments senior director Pankaj Mitra, who joined Bessemer Venture Partners as a partner focusing on AI, enterprise technology and cybersecurity investments in India. Unilever executive vice president for corporate development Vikram Kumaraswamy also joined L Catterton as a partner, and co-head of India, in August.
Menon will join Steadview Capital from Fidelity-backed Eight Roads Ventures, which he left earlier this year. He was a principal at Eight Roads and led early-stage investments across software, enterprise, consumer and fintech spaces at the firm.
“Maneesh was primarily focusing on early stage investments at Eight Roads and this was an opportunity for him to work with later stage and potentially even public companies,” one of the persons cited above, said. Menon has worked with Eight Roads portfolio companies such as AssetPlus, Wint Wealth and SaaS Labs.
Apart from Menon, Steadview Capital also recently roped in Himanshu Jain as a principal in the India investment team. Jain joined Steadview in January from early-stage investment firm Vertex Ventures.
Steadview Capital, responding to an email query sent by ET, confirmed the development. “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.
Eight Roads also did not respond to an email query at 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 saw 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 a series of churn in the venture capital space. In fact, Puneet 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 Capital had invested in over 30 private companies, including Eternal (then Zomato), Nykaa, Freshworks, Innovaccer, Chargebee, Ultrahuman, Atomberg, and MoEngage. During this time, Steadview Capital’s private portfolio also saw nine 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.
Several investment executives also jumped to other companies. This includes Cisco Investments senior director Pankaj Mitra, who joined Bessemer Venture Partners as a partner focusing on AI, enterprise technology and cybersecurity investments in India. Unilever executive vice president for corporate development Vikram Kumaraswamy also joined L Catterton as a partner, and co-head of India, in August.
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