Former Infosys CFO Mavinakere To Head Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures

Former Infosys Chief Financial Officer, Ranganath D Mavinakere, will lead investments at NR Narayanamurthy’s family office Catamaran.

“Ranga is NRN’s longtime trusted lieutenant, and someone considered close to the family. He’s the best person to manage the family office,” a Firstpost report said, quoting an unidentified source.

N.R. Narayan Murthy’s private investment firm, Catamaran Ventures was launched in 2009 with an initial corpus of $120 Mn from Murthy family. The firm funds early-stage startups in India and many countries. It has till now invested in companies including Hector Beverages, Coverfox, Acko and Wellspring. Catamaran has a 76 % share in Cloudtail India, a joint venture with Amazon.com.

Mavinakere joined ICICI Bank in 1991 after completing his engineering and MBA, where he led the treasury and planning team. He joined Infosys in 2000 in financial services consulting. After some year he was appointed as Chief Risk Officer (CRO), a very rare role for an Indian company and later became the chief financial officer (CFO).

Mavinakere, today an independent board member of HDFC Bank, spent 18 years at Infosys. He was instrumental in reviving Infosys in 2013 along with Murthy and his son Rohan. Senior executives HR Binod and Deepak Padaki were also part of the team. N.R. Narayan Murthy had great trust in Mavinakere’s ability to navigate through the complexities of the organisation. Murthy even called him “one of the best CFOs” in India and a “rare individual” when he resigned in 2018.

In his resignation letter Mavinakere, who played leadership roles in consulting, finance, strategy and risk management in Infosys, said, “After a successful career spanning 18 years in Infosys including as CFO for the last 3 crucial years, I now plan to pursue professional opportunities in new areas.”

Infosys founder N.R. Narayan Murthy had earlier said that creating a free business environment for startups is the first step to ensure the prosperity of India. “As entrepreneurs create jobs and opportunities, we can create wealth and pay more tax,” he said.

He has also appreciated the Indian government’s various initiatives such as Startup India and Standup India and has reiterated often that there is a need for a free environment for industries and investors. Meanwhile, the Firstpost report also added that Mavinakere will lead an overhaul of Catamaran Ventures including a rethink of the family office’s startup investments while quoting another unidentified source.

Update | 17:30, December 9, 2019

The original version of this article was titled ‘Former Infosys CFO Mavinakere Will Now Head Catamaran Ventures’.

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