Venture capital firm Lightspeed India Partners has appointed former Andreessen Horowitz executive Hemant Mohapatra as a partner.
“I'll be joining the fantastic team at Lightspeed Venture Partners in their India office focusing on investing across sectors,†Mohapatra said in a LinkedIn post.
During his stint as partner at American VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Mohapatra was a board observer at companies such as DigitalOcean, Actifio and Cumulus Networks.
“Hemant has very deep enterprise experience, but he’ll take on more than just that [at Lightspeed]," Dev Khare, managing partner at Lightspeed India, told Mint. "We’re flat as a team and anybody can do any sector.â€
Mohapatra had earlier worked with Google as strategic partnerships and business development lead. An Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay graduate, he also had a stint with chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as engineer and product manager.
"There is so much to do and so much innovation will come from the private sector with the right policies in place — entrepreneurs are going to be the kings and queens of this new hyper connected, hyper digital world," he said about his new role.
Lightspeed Venture Partners
US-based Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm which focuses on the enterprise and consumer sectors. The global firm currently manages over $4 billion of committed capital with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India and China.
Lightspeed Venture Partners has invested in direct and cross-border Indian companies since 2004. It has offices in New Delhi and Bengaluru.
In 2015, Lightspeed Venture Partners had mobilised $135 million (Rs 875 crore) in its maiden India-dedicated fund which is based out of Mauritius.
The fund, christened Lightspeed India Partners I, LLC, has invested in as many as 11 companies in India in the last three years, according to VCCEdge, the research arm of News Corp VCCircle.
Citing three people aware of the development, Mint reported that Lightspeed is in talks to raise its second India-focussed fund.
The VC firm also invests in India through its global funds.
Lightspeed Venture Partners was one of the earliest investors in branded budget hotels marketplace OYO.
Its portfolio also includes ed-tech firm Byju’s, B2B marketplace Udaan, social networking platform ShareChat, and food-tech firm FreshMenu.
Last month, VCCircle reported that Lightspeed led a $3.5 million Series A investment in Delhi-based early payment facilitation platform Priority Vendor Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the tech startup launched by a co-founder of Brattle Foods, the food logistics venture which was acquired by a Future Group firm.
