Bessemer Venture Partners hires Pankaj Mitra to lead AI, enterprise-tech bets in India
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Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) has appointed Pankaj Mitra as a partner in its India team. He will focus on investments in artificial intelligence (AI), enterprise technology, and cybersecurity The appointment comes shortly after the VC firm closed its second India-focused fund at $350 million in March. The fund is aimed at backing early-stage startups across the AI, software-as-a-service (SaaS), fintech, digital health, consumer brand, and cybersecurity sectors.Mitra, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, joins BVP from Cisco's corporate development team, where he spent the past seven years leading investments and M&A activity for the technology giant's global customer experience portfolio and for India. His portfolio included companies such as Fiddler, Uniphore, and Whatfix.Earlier, he had worked with technology services company Infosys , where he was part of the founding team of its $500 million innovation fund and invested in companies such as Ideaforge and Whoop.'I am thrilled to join Bessemer at this pivotal time,' said Mitra. 'The ongoing AI platform shift offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity for builders to usher in the next wave of tech evolution across industries.'BVP began investing in India in 2006 and has backed over 80 startups in the country so far, including BigBasket, Urban Company, Livspace, and PharmEasy. The firm has seen nine Indian portfolio companies go public, including Swiggy, Indian Energy Exchange, and Bharat Matrimony.Globally, Bessemer manages over $18 billion in assets and has backed companies such as Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, LinkedIn, DocuSign, Fiverr, and Toast.Commenting on the appointment, Vishal Gupta, partner at BVP, said, 'Pankaj brings a breadth of experience, which is a unique blend of investing prowess as well as deep industry knowledge. This will be invaluable as we look to deepen our commitments in AI, enterprise tech, and cybersecurity in India.'
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