Former Premji Invest Partner Atul Gupta Rolls Out VC Firm

SUMMARY

The new firm will focus on growth-stage equity investments

It will focus on consumer, financial services, enterprise software and technology, industrial and manufacturing, and healthcare sectors

Gupta joins a long list of fund managers and partners who have left VC firms over the past year to launch their own ventures

Former Premji Invest partner Atul Gupta has launched a venture capital firm Trident Growth Partners (India) to invest in startups operating across consumer, financial services, enterprise software and technology, industrial and manufacturing and healthcare sectors.

Gupta floated the VC firm, along with another former executive of Premji Invest, Rajesh Ramaiah, and Malacca Ventures veteran Pravan Malhotra.

In a LinkedIn post, Gupta said that after 15 remarkable years at Premji Invest, he is embarking on a new entrepreneurial journey. His time at Premji Invest began with a chance meeting with Prakash Parthasarathy in mid-2008. During that meeting, they discussed the state of the Indian economy and the grand vision of Premji Invest, which was a nascent organisation at the time.

“I was intrigued by the opportunity to build a platform dedicated to growing an endowment that supported the Azim Premji Foundation’s impactful work in education and healthcare across India. A pivotal meeting with Mr. Azim Premji solidified my decision to join Premji Invest and relocate from the US to India within the next few months,’ he said.

During his tenure, he had worked with startups such as Policybazaar, Lenskart, Amagi, Myntra, Flipkart,FirstCry, GlobalBees, Purplle, MedPlus, KreditBee and Mintifi, among others.

“Several of these companies have already achieved Unicorn status or are well on their way. I have gained invaluable insights from working closely with their founders, senior management teams, and Board members over the years,” he added.

Gupta also joins a long list of fund managers and partners who have left VC firms over the past year to launch their own ventures.

Earlier in April, Piyush Gupta quit Peak XV to launch a secondary-focused fund. The same month, Lightspeed saw the exit of venture partners Vaibhav Agrawal and Abhishek Nag.

In April, Sameer Brij Verma stepped down as managing director of Nexus Venture Partners in March to launch a multi-stage fund.

Meanwhile, 2023 saw the announcement and launch of 64 funds, including venture capital funds, micro-funds, and corporate VC funds. These funds amounted to over $5.6 Bn. In comparison, 2022 witnessed the launch of 126 funds, raising over $18 Bn for startup investments.