Helion co-founder Kanwaljit Singh moving out as VC firm names two new partners

MUMBAI: Venture capital firm Helion is seeing top level management changes as co-founder and senior managing director Kanwaljit Singh is moving out of the firm to "pursue his interests in the consumer space," according to a statement. The firm has also announced elevation of two of its directors, Ritesh Banglani and Rahul Chowdhri, as partners at the venture fund.

Singh had set up Helion in 2006 along with Ashish Gupta, Sanjeev Aggarwal and Rahul Chandra. While Gupta and Aggarwal are at the level of senior MD, Chandra is an MD at the venture capital firm which manages $600 million across funds. Singh will stay with Helion till March 2016 and effect a smooth transition.

"This comes at a time when the fund has considerably increased the focus on technology investing," said the statement from Helion.

Former co-head of venture capital at Carlyle in India, Singh primarily focused on consumer sector investments at Helion Venture. He serves on boards of Fashionara, HummingBird, YLG Salons, Qwikcilver, Mast Kalandar, Yepme, Attano and LifeCell.

In his previous stints before venture capital, Singh worked as marketing head for Intel South Asia before which he was at Hindustan Unilever for a decade in functions like sales, marketing and product innovation.

Singh’s move coincides with Helion promoting two of its relatively younger team members. Chowdhri, former Microsoft executive, has been associated with Helion since inception and worked on investments like salon chain YLG and online test prep startup Toppr. Bangalani joined in 2010 from IDG Ventures and has worked on investments like cab aggregator TaxiForSure and realty classifieds portal Housing.

Helion Ventures, which has offices in Delhi and Bangalore, has been one of the most active investors in Indian startups over the last 7-8 years. Some of the firms well known investments include online travel portal MakeMyTrip and bus ticketing website RedBus, both of which it has exited.