Together Fund ropes in former Google VP Lakshmi Shankar as general partner

Lakshmi Shankar has been named general partner at Together Fund.

Together Fund, a venture capital firm specialising in software-as-a-service (SaaS) investments, has named Lakshmi Shankar as general partner. The strategic addition aims to expand the fund's investment reach into the US market.

"Shankar will head the VC firm's San Francisco office and focus on early-stage investments in AI startups in the US India corridor...Lakshmi’s addition to our team underscores our commitment to staying ahead in this dynamic field," Together Fund cofounder Manav Garg told Moneycontrol.

Shankar was the VP of product strategy at Google and was the venture partner at Entrepreneur First before joining Together.

"Shankar played a significant role in the growth of Google Search globally and the launch of the Search Generative Experience (now 'AI Overview'), Google's AI response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft's New Bing and Perplexity," the firm said in a statement.

Together Fund was launched in 2021 by founders and operators including Girish Mathrubootham, co-founder of Freshworks, Garg, founder of Eka Software, and Shubham Gupta, a former SaaS investment leader at Matrix Partners India.

The firm was set up to help build and scale globally successful SaaS companies, emphasising a "founder-first" philosophy.

Together Fund recently announced a second fund worth $150 million, which will also focus on AI startups. The firm typically invests in the seed, pre-Series A and Series A stages.

"Together Fund has been performing exceptionally well. We are proud to have multiple breakout companies in our portfolio from Fund 1, which have shown significant growth and market impact...Our Limited Partners (LPs) are particularly enthusiastic about these achievements, recognizing the immense potential and value creation these companies represent," Garg said.