Swiggy Backer Prosus Promotes Ashutosh Sharma To Lead India, SEA Investments

Prosus Ventures, which counts BYJU’S, Swiggy, Meesho, Olx and Fashinza among its Indian portfolio companies, has promoted its head of investments for India, Ashutosh Sharma, to pursue growth opportunities in Southeast Asia, besides India. 

This comes at a time when two Indian startups backed by Prosus, Swiggy and PayU, are prepping up to go public.

The development was first reported by Moneycontrol.

“Prosus seeks to back exceptional technology companies, across multiple sectors, whether through controlled or minority investments. The current market environment provides well-capitalised companies like ours the opportunity to invest in generation-defining businesses. Ashutosh Sharma will now lead early and growth plus opportunities across India and adjacent markets,” the report quoted Prosus as saying.

It is believed that Sharma’s promotion will further give solidity and a face to Prosus’ India operations.

Prosus is looking to expand its bets across growth-stage deals in India and adjacent regions amid a surge in inflow of foreign funds.

Owned by the Dutch-listed arm of South African technology investor Naspers, Prosus has invested more than $7 Bn in India till date.

As per his LinkedIn profile, Sharma was appointed as the head of investments for India at Prosus Ventures in October 2016. 

During his stint at Prosus Ventures, Sharma led investments in a number of Indian unicorns, including the likes of Swiggy, BYJU’S, Meesho, Dehaat, Myglamm, Mensa, PharmEasy, and Urban Company among others.

Before joining Prosus, Sharma served as a vice president at Norwest Venture Partners, which backs Indian companies across a wide-range of sectors.

It must be noted that Prosus has made several changes in its top management over the last year or so. 

In September last year, Ervin Tu was appointed as interim CEO of Prosus after Bob van Dijk, former CEO of Prosus and its parent Naspers, resigned from his position.

The development came shortly after Prosus split its edtech and food delivery segments, appointing separate leaders to lead each vertical. 

Back then, Gautam Thakur, former CEO of OLX Autos, was appointed as the CEO of Prosus’ global edtech vertical, whereas Roger Rabalais, who served as the CFO and COO of the food and edtech verticals, took over as CEO of food delivery for Prosus.

Meanwhile, Prosus also entered into a legal battle against BYJU’S and its founder.

In February, Prosus, along with other BYJU’S investors, filed a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NLCT) over alleged oppression and mismanagement of the edtech firm.