Y Combinator’s Puneet Kumar Joins VC Firm Nexus Venture Partners

After a year-long stint with Y Combinator as a visiting group partner, Puneet Kumar has taken up the role of venture partner with venture capital (VC) firm Nexus Venture Partners. 

Kumar made the announcement in a LinkedIn post. “Excited to join Nexus VP as a Venture Partner and pay it forward to the startup ecosystem. After building multiple startups and investing in companies globally as part of Y-Combinator, I am eager to partner with and learn from the next wave of entrepreneurs,” he said. 

During his time at Y Combinator, Kumar participated in startup schools and demo days where startups pitch for a place in the summer and winter cohort of the VC fund.

Before joining Y Combinator in 2022, Kumar was at the helm of grocery startup SuprDaily as its founder and CEO for six years between 2015-21. Kumar claims that the startup was able to scale up to an annual revenue run rate (ARR) of $100 Mn. The startup was also a part of Y Combinator’s Winter batch. It was acquired by Swiggy in 2019 and has been rebranded to InsanelyGood. 

Kumar’s shift to Nexus Venture Partners comes at a time when the VC firm’s managing director Sameer Brij Verma is set to depart after a 13-year stint. Verma is leaving the firm to start his own investment fund.

Founded in 2006 by Naren Gupta, Sandeep Singhal and Suvir Sujan, Nexus Venture Partners invests in tech-enabled startups based in the US and India. It counts global pension funds, family office and endowment funds as its investors and claims to have $2.6 Bn of capital under management.

It has backed startups like Unacademy, Hasura, Postman, Turtlemint, Apollo.io, Zepto, and M2P. 

The latest development comes at a time when a number of VC firms in India are seeing a churn at the top level. Earlier this month, IvyCap Ventures’ managing partner Tej Kapoor joined ICICI Venture as a director/ partner. 

Last month, Venture Highway’s Aviral Bhatnagar announced his departure from the firm, while Peak XV Partners’ managing director Piyush Gupta is also exiting the VC firm to start his own fund.