Former top executives at Omidyar Network, the global venture capital (VC) firm that exited India’s startup scene last year, have launched Prana Ventures, a new VC firm, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Omidyar Network India was part of the family office of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and supported by his wife, co-founder Pam Omidyar.
The new VC firm has been set up at a time when activity in the space is picking up and investors from around the world are looking to back new-age Indian companies. Large VC firms, such as Accel, have just raised their fresh funds and others, like A91 Partners, are also in process of closing their new fund – all of which will add to the existing billions of dollars of dry powder. Dry powder is the capital that investors have available, but have not yet deployed.
While some are bullish, there are also other investors who are treading cautiously, like Peak XV Partners which reduced the size of its $2.85 billion fund by 16 percent or by $465 million, as it looks to deploy capital more judiciously and return uninvested monies to its sponsors or limited partners (LPs).
Prana’s team will consist of Amol Warange, former Principal at Omidyar Network, Tanmay Amar, former Vice President at Omidyar Network. Siddhrath Nautiyal, former Partner at Omidyar Network will be an advisor to Prana. Badri Pillapakkam, former Partner at Omidyar, who is now the General Partner at Prana Ventures, will lead the team, sources told Moneycontrol.
The VC firm was registered in Mumbai in October 2024, as per regulatory filings. To be sure, while it has been set up by former Omidyar Network executives, the two investment firms are in no way related to each other. However, like Omidyar Network, even Prana Ventures will specialise in impact investing.
Also, given the previous relationships with founders and the investment teams, Prana Ventures will manage Omidyar Network’s remaining India portfolio from the current phase through to its exit, Moneycontrol has learnt. This setting will ensure that Prana has portfolio companies to manage and at the same time help Omidyar transition out fully from India.
In India, Omidyar has backed companies like edtech unicorn Vedantu, sauce maker Wingreens, social media company VerSe Innovation, fintechs like Kiwi and M2P, EV company Bounce and many more. In India, Omidyar had invested around $500 million in total and had already clocked exits worth $250 million in about 13 years, sources had told Moneycontrol earlier.
A spokesperson for Prana Ventures confirmed the developments to Moneycontrol.
The firm will focus on early-stage, Seed to Series B, investments in technology-led startups in sectors such as Financial Inclusion, Education, Climate, Agriculture, Healthcare and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and companies “particularly targeting the bottom 60 percent of India’s income pyramid,” the spokesperson said.
Since it’s still early days, Prana Ventures is yet to decide on the total size of its maiden fund and the nature of limited partner (LPs).
Pillapakkam, Nautiyal, Warange and Amar are not alone in moving on from an investment firm and setting up their own VC firm. While their reasons might be different, since Omidyar decided to reduce India exposure, fund managers are leaving in droves, as reported by Moneycontrol last year. Over the past months, several small and large fund managers have left primarily because they were unhappy with the firm’s structure and payouts.
However, there's also a downside that, despite the pedigree, veteran fund managers do not get funded by LPs since they're setting out on their own, without the backing of a legacy name.
More venture capitalists setting up shop means there will be more capital available for founders and naturally, more people in the ecosystem making bets which further propel India’s startup ecosystem, already the third-largest in the world.
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