Chennai-based early-to-growth stage investment firm Ventureast Advisors Pvt Ltd has appointed IT veteran Srikanth Sundararajan as partner, a company statement said.
“The Indian VC sector is at a pivotal point much like the startups it invests in. We will focus on businesses where capital is not the primary competitive advantage, but technology is. Srikanth’s experience will be critical in building sustaining businesses,†said Sarath Naru, managing partner at Ventureast.
In September last year, Ventureast achieved the first close of its sixth fund at $83 million and is expected to achieve final closure over the coming months. The fund’s investment theme will be focused around technology companies operating in the areas of healthcare, fintech, agri-tech, edutech and enterprise tech.
An IIT Madras and University of Illinois alumnus, Sundararajan has about 25 years of experience—both professional and entrepreneurial—in IT. Prior to Ventureast, he was the global head of corporate strategy and technology at Persistent Systems. Earlier, he had founded Pretzel Logic, a software product services firm and has also served as the chief technology officer at software services firms HCL Technologies and Cognizant.
Founded in 1997, Ventureast, which has close to $400 million in assets under management has made investments in sectors such as technology, healthcare and clean environment. Like VPF-II, which is a tech-focused fund, the investment firm also has dedicated funds for life sciences and healthcare.
Some of its portfolio companies include Gland Pharma, Moschip, Sresta, Little Eye Labs, Atyati, and Loylty Rewardz.
In February, the investment firm also announced that it is raising a new $4 million ($26.6 crore) fund to make angel and seed investments in digital healthcare startups.
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