Global venture capital firm IDG Ventures, which invests in India through its separate local team and focuses on early stage tech sector investments, has promoted five members of its team, including three—Ranjith Menon, Venkatesh Peddi and Karan Mohla—who have been elevated as executive directors, it said on Friday.
Menon, Peddi and Mohla joined IDG Ventures in 2007, 2011 and 2010, respectively.
Before joining IDG Ventures, Menon worked with Infotech Enterprise as manager - marketing. At IDG, he focuses on healthcare technologies and software products space. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA from the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai. He is also a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Peddi was previously with Reliance Venture Asset Management as deputy vice-president and at IDG is focused on internet and cloud companies. He is a CFA charter-holder from the CFA institute, the US and holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a master’s in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS).
Before joining the VC firm, Mohla was associated with QVT Financial LP as investment professional. At IDG he is engaged in striking deals with mobile and internet companies. Karan holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (BBA) from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an EMBA from INSEAD.
The firm has also promoted Karthik Prabhakar as vice-president and Sheeba D’Mello as senior associate.
Prabhakar, who began his career with Intel, joined IDG Ventures in 2010 as an intern. He is working across sourcing, deal evaluation, investments, deal monitoring, board representation, divestment and raising capital. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Information Science from RV College of Engineering and a PGDM from IIM Bangalore.
D’Mello has been working with IDG Ventures since 2011. She has almost a decade of experience and at IDG Ventures, she serves as a board observer at eShakti.com and Aujas Networks and also heads the research team at the VC firm.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Bangalore University and a post-graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode, with majors in finance and operations.
The VC firm said it has also appointed new people at its finance and support functions team.
IDG Ventures India, a leading technology venture capital fund in India, is a part of IDG Ventures which has over $6 billion under management globally. The company has over 220 investee companies and 10 offices across Asia and North America.
Its Indian investment portfolio includes Flipkart (got small stake after its investee Myntra merged with Flipkart), Yatra, Newgen, FirstCry, Vserv, Manthan Software, Lenskart, Ozone Media and Zivame. It has exited some of these.
Two years ago, the firm had registered an investment vehicle under which it was raising its second India-focused fund worth $175 million. The firm is yet to make formal closure of this fund. IDG Ventures Fund II is the successor of IDG Ventures Fund I, which raised $150 million in 2007.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
