Prime Venture Partners sign in Dr Ashish Gupta as its Partner Emeritus

US-based Dr Ashish Gupta has been roped in as Partner Emeritus to strengthen its investment team of early stage venture capital fund Prime Venture.

Gupta, a venture capitalist co-founded Helion Ventures in 2005. He has invested in several startups and businesses including Flipkart, MuSigma, MakeMyTrip and Infoedge, among others.

Gupta was also one of the first backers of Flipkart and invested close to Rs 10 lakh in the e-commerce giant in 2009.

At Prime, Gupta will be a part of the investment committee and will be actively involved in the decision making process of all future investments. He will also serve as a mentor and advisor to Prime portfolio companies, while advising on the fund’s future strategies.

“The Indian startup ecosystem is in a very vibrant phase of its evolution and Prime is well positioned to be a key player in the building of Digital India. I’ve known all the partners Shripati, Amit, Sanjay and Raj for the better part of the last 30 years and am delighted to be working closely with them in helping shape Prime’s next phase of growth," said Gupta.

A Stanford University and IIT Kanpur alumni, Gupta’s first entrepreneurial venture, Junglee (a price-comparison platform) was acquired by Amazon in 1998 for $240 million, following which he founded Tavant Technologies in the year 2000.

Currently, the venture capitalist also serves on the board of several startups including Ezetap, Pubmatic, Simplilearn, SMSGupshup and Naukri. Some of his past investments also include Qwikcilver (acquired by Pinelabs), Daksh (acquired by IBM), Upwork, Perfios, and Redbus.

“Ashish is just an incredible all-round person. Founders who interact with him even for a few minutes always appreciate his direct style and insights. We’re privileged to have him formally associated with Prime. This will be a huge step in helping us further improve the quality of our investment decisions, as well as an excellent value-add for our entrepreneurs building companies out of India and globally," said Shripati Acharya, co-founder and managing partner, Prime Venture Partners.