Premji Invest Ropes In Former Lightspeed Exec Manjot Pahwa To Lead Its Early Stage Tech Investments

Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji’s family office Premji Invest has roped in Lightspeed India’s former vice president Manjot Pahwa to spearhead its early stage investments in technology across SaaS and enterprise markets.

Pahwa’s stint in Lightspeed India was from March 2022 to January 2024.

With over nine years of experience across product management, engineering and leadership, Pahwa held key positions in Google, Stripe and Lightspeed.

“This journey gives Manjot a unique ability to connect with founders deeply in product and technology and be an amazing thought partner to them as they build enduring businesses,” Premji Invest’s managing partner Sandesh Patnam said in a LinkedIn post.

In her seven years of career at Google, Manjot worked as an SRE and software engineer, leading core infrastructure teams serving billions of users, building and scaling Google Photos and then as a product manager for Google’s Kubernetes and Network Security teams. 

She jointly holds a patent in multi-cluster container orchestration.

The appointment comes close to Premji Invest infusing capital into Wealthtech startup Dezerv last month. Before that, it invested in lendingtech startup KreditBee in March this year. 

In April, it was reported that the family office is planning to boost its bets on artificial intelligence companies. Besides, it was also reported that the firm has been developing an AI quant model for its public market investments as well. 

Last year, the firm witnessed the departure of three of its seasoned partners namely Rajesh Ramaiah, Rahul Garg and Atul Gupta.

Premji established the family office in 2006 as a perpetual investment vehicle to fund philanthropic initiatives, having donated a significant portion of his wealth to humanitarian causes in India. 

It is a privately held investment firm supporting the Azim Premji Foundation. Its core investment areas include financial services, technology, consumer, healthcare, industrials, and buyouts.

Its investment portfolio comprises more than 50 companies which include notable players like The Sleep Company, Ikigai Labs, Mintifi, SpotDraft, Navam and Shubham Housing Development Finance Company, Lenskart, FirstCry, Signifyd Icertis, among others. 

It also has gained 15+ exits from companies such as Policybazaar, Myntra, Zuora and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance among others.

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