The firm is also in discussions to hire a third partner to focus on growth investments, these people said.

Founders TC Meenakshisundaram and Sudhir Sethi will continue to be involved in Series A+ investment decisions and will drive the firm’s expansion into other investment segments while also shaping the firm’s culture and senior talent acquisition, they added.

These changes come as Chiratae prepares for its next phase of institutional growth, looking to strengthen its late-stage fund, double down on its early-stage vehicle, and enter other investing strategies.

Confirming the developments, Meenakshisundaram, Chiratae’s founder and vice-chairman, said that Peddi and Menon would handle the leadership of the venture fund series.

“To lead our growth funds, we are looking to recruit a partner/managing director from the market…From growing leaders in-house, we now will add leader laterally for new businesses. This will also give our existing, select, high performing leaders significant opportunity for growth within the firm,” he told Mint.

Sethi, the firm’s founder and chairman, explained that the firm is seeing a good opportunity to expand its business and provide channels for their investors to diversify the capital base.

“It was time for us to think about the next phase of institutionalized growth so the discussions have been underway for about 4-5 years now. We needed the experience and track record, which our venture series has given us,” Sethi told Mint in an interview. “The idea is to replicate what we had created over the last decade but at 2x the speed. To that extent, we have widened our product range and will look to add other segments, going forward.”

Sethi added that Chiratae will hire more people for its growth fund and technology will play a large role in their investments going forward. These efforts are a part of the firm focus in driving institutionalized process aimed at the next phase of growth.

The Bengaluru-based venture capital firm manages about $1.3 billion in assets across seven venture and growth funds. It has invested in over 135 early-stage tech startups and exited more than 55, delivering nearly $1 billion in returns to investors over the past 14 years through initial public offerings (IPOs), M&A and secondary sales.

Chiratae closed its first ₹1,000 crore growth fund in 2022. “This will be followed by subsequent growth funds. Our next phase aims at significantly scaling AUM (assets under management), exits, and investing with in-house and lateral leaders at the helm,” Sethi said.

Historically, Chiratae has achieved exits through four IPOs, 17 M&A deals, and multiple multi-asset secondary transactions. Some of its notable IPOs include Newgen, Yatra, PolicyBazaar and FirstCry.

Others such as Curefoods and Lenskart have also filed DRHPs recently. Over the years, Chiratae has invested over $1 billion (about ₹8,000 crore) in India, of which nearly ₹5,000 crore was raised domestically.

Formerly known as IDG Ventures when founded in 2006 by Sethi and Sundaram, Chiratae recently announced the second close of its fifth venture capital fund at about $150 million. The fund will invest in early-stage startups, including seed and Series A.

Its core focus areas include artificial intelligence (AI), DeepTech, HealthTech, ConsumerTech, FinTech, SaaS, ClimateTech, and SpaceTech, while also expanding into emerging sectors such as DefenceTech and Quantum technologies.

The fund has already begun deploying capital, with early investments in HouseEazy, a full-stack proptech platform for resale homes; Pepsales, an AI platform for personalised B2B sales demos; Mili, a meeting assistant platform for wealth management firms; and Zilo, an omnichannel quick commerce fashion platform.

It also has an active pipeline of six more companies likely to close in the next two to three months.