AAA Sampathkumar P starts Sistema Asia Capital stint

Sampathkumar P starts Sistema Asia Capital stint

Sistema Asia Capital, a corporate venture capital vehicle for diversified Russia-based conglomerate Sistema, has appointed Sampathkumar P as senior partner ahead of the launch of its Sistema Asia Fund (SAF) II.

Founded in 2015, Sistema Asia Capital invests in enterprise technology developers and online consumer offerings across India and Southeast Asia, and was understood to be seeking $150m to $175m for Fund II as of October 2020, an increase from the $120m it had been planning to raise a few months earlier.

In addition to leading the investments of Fund II, Sampathkumar will be involved in the management of Fund I portfolio companies like Rebel Foods, Uniphore, Infra.Market, Licious and HealthifyMe.

Sampathkumar had spent more than eight years at VC firm Kalaari Capital from 2006 and was most recenty senior vice-president of product and technology for educational software provider Embibe.

Andrey Terebenin, managing partner of Sistema Asia Capital, said: “We are excited to have Sampath as a part of the growing SAF team in India. Sampath comes with a rich mix of experience in technology, investments and entrepreneurship which are all primarily the pillars of VC industry.

“As we prepare to launch Fund II, we are confident that the complementary experience of our investment leadership will help us identify new and relevant opportunities in the market and expand our scope of investment areas.”

By Fernando Moncada Rivera

Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the Global Venturing Review podcast.