Silicon Valley venture capital firm Foundation Capital has promoted Ashu Garg to the position of General Partner. Garg currently looks after the company’s investments in India. He has led Foundation’s investments in the Indian education and consumer space, involving companies like Agni Property, Aspire Human Capital Management and TreeHouse. In addition, he deals with early-stage and growth-stage investments across various sectors in India, and also focuses on digital media and online advertising in the USA.
Foundation Capital, which currently has more than 70 portfolio companies, was founded in 1995 and manages over $2.4 billion in investment capital. The venture firm, which was one of the original investors in Netflix, had raised its seventh and largest fund of $750 million in April 2008. Foundation has also invested in Delhi-based Azure Power (a solar power IPP), besides Agni Property (real estate brokerage), Aspire Human Capital Management (education services) and TreeHouse (a playschool firm which listed this year).
Besides the three India portfolio companies, Garg also serves on the board of directors of the US portfolio companies Aggregate Knowledge, Conviva and TubeMogul.
“Ashu has proved to be a thought leader and a business pioneer – always looking for what is next on the horizon that will change the architecture of business as we know it. This visionary thinking, as well as his technical depth and global breadth of experience, make him an excellent addition,” said Ashmeet Sidana, General Partner at Foundation Capital. Garg holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from IIM-Bangalore and graduated from IIT Delhi.
Prior to joining Foundation Capital in 2008, Garg was a general manager with Microsoft’s online services business, where he was responsible for strategy and business management for the digital advertising solutions business group. In this capacity, he was responsible for building business plans for the advertising business at Microsoft. Garg also led the yield (revenue) management function and was responsible for monetising display inventory across Microsoft’s advertising network.
Before joining Microsoft, Garg worked at McKinsey & Company, where he worked with mid-sized companies in digital media, software and consumer services, helping them develop and implement their go-to-market plans. While at McKinsey, Garg worked closely with NASSCOM to develop the initial IT sector strategy for India, and co-founded Aptech Internet, an Indian online services start-up, in partnership with Aptech Ltd. He has also worked with companies like Unilever and Cadence Design Systems.
