GV RAVISHANKAR

Ravishankar is an engineer by training. He studied computer science at NIT Trichy, then earned his PGDM at IIM Ahmedabad, where he won the President's Gold Medal for topping his class.

He started in the corporate world, first at Wipro Technologies and then at McKinsey. Two years into consulting, a headhunter called about a job at Sequoia Capital India.

He took it. That was around 2007, and he never left.

Over the next two decades he became a Managing Director and one of the architects of the firm's push back into early-stage investing. When Sequoia's India arm became the independent Peak XV Partners in 2023, Ravishankar was one of the senior partners steering it.

Ravishankar focuses on consumer and healthcare companies. His board seats read like a tour of modern Indian startups.

Indigo Paints, a paint maker that went public. Rebel Foods, the cloud-kitchen giant behind brands like Faasos.

Eruditus, an online education company that became a unicorn. Faces Cosmetics in beauty.

Rupeek in gold-backed lending. Suburban Diagnostics and Turtlemint in health and insurance.

He also sat on the board of BYJU'S, the education company that became the most valuable and then most infamous startup in the country.

Ravishankar is a discipline guy in a business full of hype. He and his firm decided early to stick to two areas, technology and consumer, and to skip infrastructure, manufacturing, and real estate.

He likes early-stage bets where the firm can take real ownership, often 25% to 40% of a young company. He describes his role as governing rather than ruling.

He asks hard questions, then gives the founder room to actually run the company. He is drawn to founders who solve a real pain point with focus and grit rather than a flashy pitch.

Indigo Paints is the clean win. Sequoia India backed the paint company early, when it was a small challenger to giants like Asian Paints.

In February 2021 Indigo Paints went public. The stock listed at a premium of roughly 75% over its offer price, one of the strongest debuts of the year.

For an early backer, that kind of listing is the whole point. Ravishankar had spotted a boring-sounding consumer business, backed it long before it was obvious, and watched the public market validate the call in a single day.

BYJU'S is the scar. Ravishankar sat on the board of the education company as it rocketed to a $22 billion valuation, the most valuable startup in India.

Then it fell apart. Accounting problems, missed payments, and a cash crunch turned the poster child of Indian tech into a cautionary tale.

Sequoia India's board members, Ravishankar among them, resigned from the board in 2023 as the trouble mounted. Investors eventually marked the stake down toward zero, and BYJU'S slid into insolvency proceedings.

The lesson is old and painful. A soaring valuation is not the same as a sound company, and a board seat is not the same as control.

Ravishankar's guiding line is firm ahead of individuals. He believes no single investor and no single idea is bigger than the partnership, which keeps egos in check.

He balances two loyalties that can pull against each other. He has real empathy for founders, but he also owes a duty to the investors whose money he manages.

He puts it plainly. The firm does not own a piece of the founder, it partners with them.

Add his belief in frugality, and you get an investor who bets big on people but hates wasting cash.

Ravishankar is private about his family and keeps his personal life out of the press. He is based in Bengaluru, where he has lived and worked throughout his investing career.

What comes through in his interviews is a steady, low-drama personality, unusual in an industry that loves loud personalities. He talks more about founders and companies than about himself.

NIT Trichy for a BE in computer science and engineering. Then IIM Ahmedabad for his PGDM, where he won the President's Gold Medal as the top student in his batch.

The engineering plus management combination is common among Indian VCs, but the gold medal is not. It hints at the discipline that later showed up in his allergy to sloppy, cash-burning startups.

As an Amazon Associate, Netfigo earns from qualifying purchases. Book links above may be affiliate links.