Peak XV MD Piyush Gupta to leave VC fund

Piyush Gupta, a managing director at Peak XV Partners, is exiting the venture capital firm to launch his own fund that will focus on secondary transactions, people aware of the matter said.
Gupta, who is based in Singapore, leads strategic development for Peak XV and is not involved with making investments. He led the team that helped Peak XV’s portfolio companies with aspects such as fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, and initial public offerings.

This marks the first senior-level departure at Peak XV since it split from Sequoia Capital in June 2023. Besides Gupta, the firm currently has 12 managing directors including Shailendra Singh, Rajan Anandan, Mohit Bhatnagar, GV Ravishankar and Shailesh Lakhani. These 12 MDs are part of the investment team.

“He is set to depart at the end of this month…and has already been in discussions with several investors for his new fund. He is expected to also work closely with Peak XV Partners for potential secondary deals,” one of the people said. “However, these are very early-stage discussions,” the person added.

Gupta’s decision to launch a fund focused on secondary transactions comes at a time when the larger venture investment ecosystem is witnessing an uptick in such deals, where investors trade stakes without the money going in the company.

Peak XV declined to comment.

ET reported on March 21 that venture capital investors were increasingly looking at partial exits from late-stage startups, as pressure to report returns increases amid a slump in the technology market.In the last 12-14 months, investment rounds of $50 million and above have included a significant secondary component that provides liquidity for existing investors.

Secondary stake transactions that have concluded or are in the works this year include private equity firm TPG’s purchase of a stake in logistics startup Shadowfax, Peak XV and Tiger Global’s potential acquisition of a stake in ecommerce firm Meesho, and Malabar Investments’ plan to pick shares in beauty retailer Sugar Cosmetics, as reported by ET.

Gupta’s decision to leave Peak XV was first reported by tech publication TechCrunch.

One of the people cited above said that Gupta, who has spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank prior to joining Peak XV Partners, has been involved in a number of sizeable secondary stake sales and public market deals made by Peak XV involving companies such as Zomato, Go Colours, Pine Labs and Indigo Paints.

On March 12, ET reported that Peak XV was setting up a new vehicle backed by its internal pool of capital, which would allow the firm’s partners and senior leaders to take bets on a wider set of opportunities.

The fund is being set up as a permanent capital vehicle which will allow the firm’s partners to expand and invest across different regions, strategies and sectors. These investments could be in public market companies, venture funds in other regions and specialisations that do not compete with Peak XV’s current approach.