Early-stage focused venture firm Capital A, which is soon expected to launch its Rs 200 crore second fund, on Friday said it has appointed former Goldman Sachs executive as the firm’s vice president of investments.
In his new role, Aswani Chaitanya will lead Capital A’s investment vertical and also help in building its portfolio management team, the firm said in a statement.
With over 15 years of corporate experience across companies such as Wipro, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, Chaitanya also runs kids-focussed healthy snack brand Timios, which secured funding before eventually divesting controlling stakes in the company to take up his new role at Capital A.
"With my experience in building and scaling businesses, I look forward to working with the team to identify and invest in high-potential companies and help them achieve their full potential,” said Chaitanya.
Capital A was launched in 2021 by Ankit Kedia. He was earlier the founder of Manjushree Technopack, a maker of rigid plastic packaging. The company was later sold to private equity firm Advent International in 2018. Kedia is also the founder of healthcare startup, Caremont, which distributes medical devices and consumables.
"At Capital-A, we have strived to work alongside the founders in their startup journey and partake in adding value to the businesses we invest in, this is where Aswani’s rich experience will help us – as a corporate professional and as well as more recently as a successful startup entrepreneur himself,” said Kedia. Earlier, Capital A set up a $10 million cleantech fund ‘Evolve’ to back EV-focused startups in areas such as battery-as-a-service (BaaS), manufacturing, battery management systems to optimize battery life and performance, conversion kits, after-sales support and OEMs (original equipment manufacturer) will require funding and technical support to help India become an EV nation as envisaged.
Capital A tends to back 8-10 companies every year with a ticket size of $100,000-500,000 and participates in follow-on rounds as well. Capital A is also looking for deals in the battery-swapping space as it is bullish about government support for this industry.
The firm’s second fund is focused on sectors like EV, fintech, creator economy, gaming and mobility. It will consist of limited partners (LPs) with Kedia being one of the anchor investors.
