Pankhuri Shrivastava, founder of Sequoia Capital-backed women-centric social community platform Pankhuri, owned and operated by RP Cube Pvt Ltd, passed away owing to a cardiac arrest on Friday.
News of her demise was tweeted on social community platform Twitter on Monday. Shrivastava, 32, had launched Pankhuri, a platform for women to socialise, explore and upskill through live interactive courses, in 2019. The platform enables women to engage in lifestyle conversations, thus enabling online shopping through live streaming., and also facilitates micro courses.
In July, the company had raised $3.2 million led by Surge, a rapid scale-up programme by Sequoia Capital India for startups in India and Southeast Asia, and joined by India Quotient, Taurus Ventures and angel investors. The platform claims to have a community of over 250,000 women.
Shrivastava had previously founded rental startup GrabHouse, owned and operated by Cryptopy Technologies Pvt Ltd, which, in 2016, was sold to Quickr India Pvt Ltd. GrabHouse, too, counted Sequoia Capital as its backer. The company was also backed by homegrown venture capital (VC) firm Kalaari Capital.
The private equity (PE) and startup ecosystem mourned Shrivastava’s untimely death on social media platforms.
Kalaari Capital’s founder Vani Kola tweeted on Sunday saying, "Yesterday it came as a shock to me when I found out that Pankhuri is no more. I remember her as a vivacious bright woman full of ideas and full of life. She was confident. That was something you noticed about her immediately!”
Meanwhile, Raj Anandan, Sequoia Capital’s India Managing Director said in tweet that he was deeply saddened and shocked by this sudden loss. “Pankhuri was so full of life, ideas and passion, and had a missionary zeal. We loved having Pankhuri in our Surge family and will miss you so dearly. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family in this very difficult time,” he said.
