Prime Venture Partners Appoints Alok Garodia as Chief Financial Officer

Prime Venture Partners, an early-stage India focussed VC fund today announced the appointment of former Nike and Lenovo India CFO, Alok Garodia, as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), taking over from Tulsi Swamy. Alok will be responsible for all aspects of Fund Finances, Operations, Investor Reporting, Compliance, Legal and Tax matters. Alok joins the Prime leadership team as it expands its investment and operations for the next phase of growth. Given his operating expertise across diverse industries, Alok will also engage, support and advise portfolio companies in building a strong financial and operating backbone.

A Chartered Accountant, Alok joins Prime with almost 25 years’ of experience working as CFO and other Finance Leadership roles with global companies including Lenovo, Nike, Nokia, and Pepsico. He has spent several years working in India and Asia Pacific. Alok brings with him deep operating and business finance experience of FMCG, Retail, Telecom and IT sectors and is passionate about growth, building teams, sustainable processes, and creating value. He has also been active in the startup ecosystem and is an angel investor/advisor to several early stage startups in Fintech, Social Commerce and SaaS sectors.

Tulsi Swamy, the former CFO who has been part of Prime's journey since its inception, will be stepping back from day to day activities, while being engaged with the firm as an advisor. She plans to focus her time and efforts towards projects in sustainability and venture philanthropy. Tulsi has played a pivotal role in the evolution of Prime and its portfolio over the last decade. Her deep understanding of all aspects of venture capital, from fund accounting to regulatory frameworks to company structures have helped inform the fund through a number of strategic choices and the portfolio companies through their own fund raise cycles.
 
Currently investing out of its USD 120 million Fund IV, Prime is typically the first institutional investor in startups and focuses on companies with an innovative approach to solving fundamental problems through technology. Prime’s mission is to partner early with entrepreneurs and help build world-class technology companies that are addressing some of India’s most important problems. Prime’s prominent Limited Partners include International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, a top-tier University endowment, global family offices and institutions, and numerous global technology entrepreneurs. Prime’s portfolio of more than 40 companies includes startups such as Quizizz, Niyo, MyGate, WheelsEye, OTO, Sunstone, PlanetSpark, Bolt and Dozee. Several of Prime’s portfolio companies have featured in high profile exits, including Perpule to Amazon, Recko to Stripe, Happay to Cred and Ezetap to Razorpay. Additionally, the firm also delivered a more than 4X return to all LPs of Fund 1 in less than nine years in a secondary transaction by Foundation PE.
 
Supporting Quotes:
 
Alok Garodia, Chief Financial Officer, Priven Advisors LLP (Prime Venture Partners)
“I'm thrilled to join Prime VP and can’t think of a bigger opportunity to be part of the venture capital and startup ecosystem. I have been closely following the evolution of startups in India over the last few years and am excited about the potential it holds. One of the things that drew me to Prime was its investment philosophy, first principles thinking, and the opportunity to work closely with the portfolio companies. The road ahead is full of opportunities and I look forward to being a part of building world-class companies backed by Prime VP.”
 
Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner, Priven Advisors LLP (Prime Venture Partners)
“We are delighted to welcome Alok to Prime. Alok brings in a wealth of experience in finance with deep operational experience across a range of industries in some of the most well known global brands. His experience will further add to Prime’s ability to closely work and support our portfolio companies across a range of functional areas. The next five years will see more investments and more global companies emerge out of India and we couldn’t be more excited to be part of this evolution. We’re also thankful to Tulsi for her work in setting up the finance function at Prime, and wish her the best in new endeavors.”