Azim Premji’s private investment arm Premji Invest, has seen the exit of three out of its four long-term partners this year, with the most recent being the resignation of Rajesh Ramaiah in August after a thirteen -year long stint with the Bengaluru-based investment firm.
Rahul Garg, who led investments across banking and financial services including insurance, payments as well as in the consumer and retail sectors, and another partner Atul Gupta who oversaw growth investments in the enterprise and consumer technology, education, healthcare and business services sectors had both left in early 2023. While Garg had put in a 12-year stint at the firm, Gupta was a veteran who’d been with Premji Invest since 2008.
All the three partners who have exited will continue to have an advisory engagement with the firm but a cooling off period up to one year precludes them from taking up any other work commitments, according to four people who spoke to ET on the condition of anonymity.
Subsequent to the exits, the investment firm promoted its chief financial officer and operating partner Manoj Jaiswal as well as principal Saravanan Nattanmai as partners. It had also hired former Amazon executive Kaveesh Chawla as a partner in June. Chawla had earlier put in a stint at Korean ecommerce firm Coupang.
Confirming the exits of three partners in the course of the past six to eight months, a representative for Premji Invest said, “this is because each of the partners completed approximately 12-15 years, closed three funds and have different aspirations in their personal journey.”
“This is also in line with the firm’s philosophy of having partners rotate approximately after 15 years and on completion of three funds,” the spokesperson added.
In September 2022, the firm had also seen the exit of its US-based partner Dhiraj Malkani after a stint of five years.
None of the partners replied to ET’s queries on the developments.
The privately held investment firm supports the Azim Premji Foundation, the not-for-profit arm led by the billionaire founder chairman of Wipro.
The marquee investor has backed a slew of companies from eyewear retailer Lenskart to Fabindia and TVS Credit Services. It has also invested in SBI General Insurance, FirstCry, Signifyd, Lotus Surgicals, and most recently concluded investment in jewellery brand Giva. The firm’s most notable exits include Policybazaar, Myntra, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance with the most recent being from Indira IVF.
Market estimates place the assets under management at the firm at over $11 billion including private equity and venture capital investments.
Premji Invest did not share details on the funds, exits, returns and exact AUM.
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Mid-level exits
The churn at the top comes at a time when the firm has also seen mid-level executives leave to join top private equity firms. Of the core investment team of around 20-25 people, the investment firm has witnessed at least five more resignations since April last year, the latest being in October.
In October, a senior investment associate Abhishek Kshirsagar joined PE firm General Atlantic. While others who have quit include Kshitij Sharma who left in December 2022 and joined Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Earlier, Rohit Mutthoo, a vice president left to join TR Capital Group while Aayush Singhal, a senior associate had joined Singapore-based larger rival Temasek.
“Exits have had to do with a host of factors including relocation, and new career opportunities, and in select cases performance linked issues,” according to Premji Invest’s spokesperson.
Six months ago, Premji Invest recast roles in its private equity practice, both by promoting high performers and hiring externally to ready the organisational structure for the next phase of growth. The company’s workforce strength has jumped three times over the last 24 months.
People in the know said that the partners who have left will continue to be on the boards of portfolio companies and receive incentives from their investments in the subsequent funds such as Fund II, III and IV, if applicable. They also claimed that exits at are not routine attrition and higher than the industry average.
However, Premji Invest spokesperson said, “Our attrition level has been on par with rest of the industry. Exits have had to do with a host of factors including relocation, and new career opportunities, and in select cases performance linked issues. Our incentive and carry structure are in line with the industry and recently we successfully closed our Fund I with one of the highest carry payouts in the industry. The beneficiaries included the partners who exited the firm.”
Premji Invest currently has four partners in its private equity practice, across India and the US. It has over a hundred employees across India and the US and said it aims to hire both laterally and from campuses in India and the US.
Premji Invest was set up in 2006 to manage financial investments supporting the Azim Premji Foundation, which was founded in 2001. As part of the donation to the endowment fund, along with other assets, ~ 66% of the economic ownership of Wipro Ltd (which is close to 90% of total promoter holding) is with the Foundation. Philanthropic corpus of Endowment (other than Wipro shares) is invested across debt and equity. A significant majority of returns generated by Premji Invest accrue to the philanthropic corpus.
Premji Invest backs growth stage companies in India and the US largely focused on emerging and disruptive technologies space across sectors including financial services, technology, consumer, industrials, and healthcare.
It typically invests in around 3-4 deals annually ranging as low as $3 million in early-stage bets and go up to $200 million.
Currently, the Bengaluru-based PE firm is deploying capital out of its fourth fund. It has exited the first fund and is in process of winding down its fund 2 and 3.
