Whereas Agrawal, who is predicated in Silicon Valley, is ready to launch his personal enterprise agency, Nag has joined Mumbai-based 360 One (previously IIFL Wealth & Asset Administration) to guide early-stage investments, the sources stated.
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Current high-profile exits within the enterprise capital business embrace Sameer Brij Verma, who is ready to go away Nexus Enterprise Companions, amongst different departures at Trifecta Capital, Lightbox and Orios, coinciding with the reset within the tech investing world globally.
Agrawal, who was with Lightspeed’s India partnership earlier, moved to its US fund three years in the past, from the place he left in 2023, one of many individuals stated.
Each Agrawal and Nag confirmed their departures to ET. Queries despatched to Lightspeed didn’t elicit a response by the point of publishing.
c It has just lately led giant rounds such because the $103-million increase by audio platform Pocket FM in March, and a $41-million funding in synthetic intelligence startup Sarvam AI.
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In July 2022, Lightspeed raised $500 million for its fourth fund targeted on investments in India and Southeast Asia.Lightspeed’s giant bets
Nonetheless, among the funding agency’s bigger bets haven’t performed out effectively. Lightspeed India has to this point raised commitments for round $1.6 billion throughout 4 funds beginning in 2015, and has returned over $1 billion in capital to its restricted companions, or fund sponsors, to this point.
A few of the portfolio firms on which it has taken bigger bets — together with business-to-business ecommerce agency Udaan and vernacular social media platform ShareChat — have seen valuations come down.
Bengaluru-based Udaan’s valuation fell to $1.8 billion following a December 2023 financing spherical of $340 million, which was largely a conversion of debt notes into fairness with some contemporary capital being infused. Lightspeed holds virtually 40% stake within the firm, which had a peak valuation of $3.2 billion following its January 2021 fundraise.
Equally, ShareChat, which raised a $48-million convertible debt spherical in March this yr, was earlier in discussions to lift major capital at a valuation of $1-1.5 billion – down from its peak worth of $5 billion. Lightspeed had first invested within the firm in November 2016, with participation in follow-on rounds.
Edtech agency Byju’s, through which Lightspeed first invested in September 2016, has additionally seen its valuation plunge 99% from $22 billion.
Among the many agency’s most notable exits are a partial stake sale in Gurugram-based Oyo – by way of which Lightspeed took house round $1 billion in money from the sale of half of its stake in 2019 when founder Ritesh Agarwal executed a $1.5 billion share buyback. Its different key exits embrace ItzCash – bought to Ebix – the place it made a 3-4x return.
VC churn
At Lightspeed, Agrawal had led the agency’s investments in Innovaccer, Apna.co and Zetwerk. Nag, who was at Lightspeed from 2022 until February this yr, labored with content material creator platform Home of X and logistics tech firm Airbound.
The departures come within the backdrop of a number of prime executives and companions within the tech funding ecosystem leaving their corporations.
These embrace Nexus Enterprise Companions’ Sameer Brij Verma, who is ready to launch his personal funding fund. Enterprise debt fund Trifecta Capital’s companion Sandeep Bapat additionally resigned just lately to affix personal fairness agency Singularity Progress as its new co-chief funding officer and senior companion.
In September 2023, three companions at early-stage enterprise capital agency Lightbox Ventures – Siddharth Talwar, Jeremy Wenokur and Prashant Mehta – resigned.
Equally, two managing companions at early-stage funding agency Orios Enterprise Companions, Anup Jain and Rajeev Suri, additionally stepped down in August.
The churn within the business has additionally seen some executives becoming a member of enterprise traders. These embrace The Good Glamm Group cofounder Priyanka Gill who moved to Kalaari Capital in February this yr, and Shiprocket cofounder Vishesh Khurana who is ready to guide the India fund of Silicon Valley-based Tribe Capital.
