Three MDs at Peak XV Partners depart to launch new fund amid heightened VC churn

Three managing directors of Peak XV Partners—Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma—have left the venture capital fund that has backed companies such as Groww, Meesho and Mamaearth.

The exits add to the broader churn in the early-stage investing industry and continued top-deck changes at Peak XV after its split from the famed Silicon Valley investor Sequoia Capital. Their departure comes at a time when Peak XV is close to raising its latest fund of $1.2-1.4 billion, which ET reported last year.

Agrawal, Mittal and Sharma will launch a new fund. The three of them hold board seats in around 40 Peak XV portfolio companies.


“We have mutually decided to part ways with Ashish Agrawal. After thoughtful consideration and discussions, it became clear that parting ways was in the best interests of our limited partners and the long-term interests of the firm. Following Ashish’s departure, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma have decided to join him,” the firm said in a statement.

According to people aware of the matter, the partners’ departure was finalised over the last 7-8 days starting with Agrawal’s exit.

Agrawal’s big win at Peak XV came with Groww’s public listing in November last year. The fund holds a 17% stake, valued at about $2 billion as of Tuesday, in the stockbroking firm. Peak XV sold roughly $178 million worth of shares through the IPO’s offer-for-sale route. Against a total investment of $30-35 million, the stake based on Tuesday’s stock price delivered a more than 60-fold paper gain, making it among the biggest venture returns in India.

Other exits

The latest departures add to three other partnership-level departures of Shailesh Lakhani, Abheek Anand and Harshjit Sethi over the last one year.

It is the third major breakout from the partnership of the venture firm. In 2011, Sumir Chadha, KP Balaraj, SK Jain and Sandeep Singhal—the founding partners of Sequoia Capital India—left the global venture capital firm and revived their original fund, WestBridge Capital. Managing directors Abhay Pandey, VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago launched growth equity firm A91 Partners in 2018.

Peak XV has promoted principal Abhishek Mohan to the MD position and appointed its chief people officer, Saipriya Sarangan, as chief operating officer.

With this, Peak XV’s partnership size has reduced to seven MDs from 12 at its peak last year. The remaining general partners are Shailendra Singh, GV Ravishankar, Mohit Bhatnagar, Rajan Anandan, Sakshi Chopra, Rohit Agarwal and Mohan.

Launching new VC firm

In a LinkedIn post, Agrawal said that he, along with Mittal and Sharma, will start a new venture capital firm.

“After 13 years at Peak XV Partners/Sequoia Capital India, I have decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge. I am excited to be teaming up with long-time partners Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma to start a new venture capital firm,” he wrote.


Agrawal won the Midas Touch prize at The ET Startup Awards 2025 for his bet on Groww.

ET reported in September that Lakhani and Sethi were likely to team up to launch a new investment firm.