Mumbai-based asset management company 35 North Ventures LLP has roped in former managing director and chief executive officer at Dhanlaxmi Bank, Sunil Gurbaxani as its operating partner.
The asset manager runs India Discovery Fund, a SEBI-approved angel fund with a fund size of $100 million. The India Discovery Fund, launched last year, invests in asset-light business models that are tech-enabled.
Gurbaxani, who has nearly three decades experience in banking, had previous stints with State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (now merged into SBI) and Axis Bank.
“His leadership appointments are strategically aligned with our aim to fortify human capital within the company and have people with the right skills and experiences who will help us reach the next level of growth,” said Milan Sharma, partner at 35 North Ventures.
The early-stage focussed fund also onboarded Avtar Monga, former CEO of IDFC First Bank and former executive at Bank of America to its board this year. These appointments have been made to guide its portfolio companies in terms of effective functioning.
The fund seeks to provide growth capital to companies across categories such as edtech, fashion, fintech, defence tech, food & beverages amongst others.
The fund has also recently invested in emerging startups such as CloudTailor, SpeEdLabs, Dhybrid and Stupa Analytics.
Not too many VC funds have been offlate reported to have onboarded banking executives to boost their pace of investment and dealings with portfolio firms. However, in one such instance, Bay Capital Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd, on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ritwick Ghoshal as the investment firm’s managing partner and chief executive officer on Tuesday.
Ghoshal joins Bay Capital from Barclays Private Bank where he was the director for private clients and was part of the India private banking management committee for the lender.