Prashanth Prakash, partner at venture capital firm Accel that was an early backer of Flipkart and Freshworks, has been appointed as an advisor to the chief minister of Karnataka.
Prakash will advise BS Yediyurappa on strategy and planning, going by reports, although the areas of advisory are not known.
An email sent to Prakash seeking comments on his new role and whether he will continue to be actively involved with Accel did not elicit a response.
He was already serving as chairman of Karnataka's Vision Group for Startups set up by the state government in 2019 to promote entrepreneurship primarily in smaller towns and cities.
He had co-founded early-stage investment firm Erasmic in 2004 before it merged with Accel in 2008. Prakash, along with other Erasmic partners Subrata Mitra, Mahendran Balachandran and Gagan Kumar, had joined Accel after the merger.
At Accel, he focuses on consumer Internet services, online marketplaces, and software as a service (SaaS). Prakash has led Accel investments in Infra.Market, which turned into a unicorn earlier this year, Agrostar, BlueStone, BookMyShow, Clevertap, FabHotels, Glowroad, HolidayMe and HomeLane, among others.
Prior to co-founding Erasmic, he had founded two enterprises in the internet and multimedia publishing spaces.
