Peak XV Partners Promotes Rohit Agarwal As MD

A month after Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia rebranded itself as Peak XV Partners, the venture capital (VC) firm on Tuesday (July 25) said it has promoted Rohit Agarwal to the post of managing director from his earlier position of principal investor.

In a statement, the VC major said it would now have three MDs in the investment team at its Singapore office – Shailendra Singh, Abheek Anand, and Rohit Agarwal. 

Agarwal would focus on early and growth stage investments in the region. According to Peak XV Partners, Agarwal has expertise in fintech, ecommerce, consumer goods, and SaaS investments.

He joined the firm in 2015 and currently sits on the boards of Insider, Bibit, Tonik, Kopi Kenangan, and Lemonilo, among other companies, Peak XV Partners said.

Last month, Sequoia Capital spun off its India business to run it as a separate entity. Sequoia India & SEA has raised $9.2 Bn across 13 funds, and invested in over 400 startups in the region. Peak XV Partners continues to manage the existing portfolio and will further invest from the $2.5 Bn of uninvested capital over the next few years.

Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital also rebranded its China arm as HongShan to run it as another separate entity. 

A Peak XV Partners spokesperson had told Inc42 that the rebranding was also forced by “the growing market confusion due to shared Sequoia brand, portfolio conflicts.”

It must be noted that Sequoia Capital’s China arm is reportedly also planning to expand into Singapore, which would heighten the competition with the VC firm’s India and US arms. 

However, Peak XV Partners recently denied that concerns around the rising geopolitical tension between the US and China were behind the firm’s decision to separate the businesses.

In India, several of the firm’s portfolio startups, including GoMechanic, BharatPe, and Zilingo, have come under the scanner for issues related to corporate governance and other fraudulent activities.

However, the VC firm continues to have big plans for the Indian startup ecosystem. Speaking at Inc42’s MoneyX, Peak XV Partners MD Rajan Anandan, said that the Indian startup funding is back to normal and the VC firm has INR 20,000 Cr to invest in.

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