Indian Venture & Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) —an apex industry body for alternative assets —has formed a new VC Council for 2022-24. The council will be chaired by Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia India & Southeast Asia and Surge and co-chaired by Rahul Khanna, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital.
IVCA has formed the council to strengthen governance practices for VCs and start-ups while continuing working with the government and its various agencies to improve the environment for venture capital in India.
On his role, Rajan Anandan said the start-up ecosystem and the venture capital industry in India are entering a new phase. India is already the world’s third largest start-up ecosystem and has become a preferred destination for investors globally.
“Our mandate as the VC Council is to ensure that we continue to build on these strong foundations while addressing a range of areas such as attracting more domestic capital, improving governance, and encouraging new funds in emerging sectors. As we do this, we look forward to collaborating with all venture capital firms in the industry and our progressive policy makers in the government to take our ecosystem to new height,” Anandan said.
Echoing his views, Rahul Khanna said: “My aim in the new role will be to support the maturing of this asset class by providing access to best practices in capital formation, portfolio management, governance and reporting. This should particularly benefit my peers in the venture capital community especially, the emerging local managers who are helping fund growth and innovation in the Indian economy.”
Besides Rajan Anandan and Rahul Khanna, the newly formed council includes Manish Khetarpal (WaterBridge Ventures), Priyanka Chopra (Bharat Innovation Fund), Ruchi Khajanchi (A91 Partners), Sehraj Singh (Prosus Ventures), Anil Joshi (Unicorn India Ventures) and Sameer Brij Verma(Nexus Venture Partners) as its members.
The council envisages to engage more than 120 VC Member Funds of IVCA and engage with other domestic and global funds at large to work on important industry initiatives and issues.
The council functions as a permanent sub-committee under the aegis of IVCA Executive Committee. The new VC Council aims to continue driving government engagement by advocating for policies that encourage innovation which contributes to capital creation, nation building and knowledge dissemination.
These elements work in tandem to offer governance and advocacy support to strengthen the ecosystem by supporting young and first-time fund managers—all the while working with a gender agnostic approach to further the cause of diversity and inclusion in the Indian VC community.