Angel investor and advisor Anand Chandrasekaran has joined venture capital firm General Catalyst as Partner.
In his new role, he will be focusing on General Catalyst’s investment opportunities in India and the US, he said in a LinkedIn post.
“I’m truly excited to help the next generation of internet-era founders build beyond what the first generations were able to create,” he said.
Anand is a seed investor/advisor in more than startups across US and India. Seven of them including India’s DealShare and NoBrokerand USA’s PIPE and Carta now have a valuation of more than $1 billion and more than 35 of these have grown to more than $250 million in valuation including Rupeek, Khatabook, OneCard, and Scaler Academy.
Prior to this, he served as the Executive Vice President of Product at California-headquartered software company Five9.
“The ability for founders to change the destiny of India by building is truly unprecedented. They are the hero(ine)s of this story, and we look forward to supporting the best of them,” he wrote.
Anand has experience in building five products with more than 10 million users. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Indian retail giant Future Group.
Before working at Five9, he was the Director of Messenger Platform at Facebook from 2016 to 2019. Before that, he led Indian ecommerce company Snapdeal’s product division as the Chief Product Officer.
He has also led telecom operator Bharti Airtel’s product division. Prior to that, Anand worked with Yahoo! As senior director for Search and Mobile.
He is also the founder of software company Aeroprise in 2001, which BMC Software acquired in 2011.
“Those experiences helped me play a part in 80+ journeys as a seed investor, including breakout companies in consumer and in B2B SaaS,” Anand wrote in the post. “I spent my 10pm-midnight slots many weeknights for many years with those founders, witnessing their struggles and being a partner to their audacity of ambition.”
General Catalyst makes early-stage investments and has companies like Airbnb, Snap, Stripe, Warby Parker in its portfolio. In India, the firm has invested in startups like CRED, CityMall, StockGro and Uni.
“General Catalyst’s founder-driven approach matches my own experience, and its mission of investing in powerful, positive change that endures is vital for a world that urgently needs solutions for healthcare, climate change, and many more pressing problems,” he added.
