Naren Gupta, a venture capitalist who co-founded Nexus Venture Partners to put Indian SaaS startups on the world map, died on Saturday. He was 73.
Gupta, who moved to the United States in the late 1960s to complete a college education, co-founded Integrated Systems, a software company that was eventually sold to Intel. After leaving the company, Gupta began exploring investment opportunities.
“My introduction to venture capital and investing was really accidental,” he said on a podcast last year. “I really didn’t mean to do it. But the opportunity seemed good and I got to know a lot of entrepreneurs and invested every now and then. “
One of the first investments Gupta made was in an Indian startup, which, against his insistence, agreed to a takeover bid. The deal made Gupta realize that his portfolio startups would be able to take longer-term bets if he had a formal venture fund.
“That’s why I was interested in ventures in India. In 2005 and 2006 I went on several trips and got to know hundreds of companies, ”he recalls on the podcast.
It was a bold bet. Back then there were very few startups in India and far fewer investors willing to support them. Additionally, Nexus focused on startups solving problems for large companies. Their bet was that companies around the world would find the relevant solutions.
“Technology really doesn’t follow political boundaries. What we were able to do early on was bring US norms and approaches to building businesses and combining that with Indian talent and ability to get things done. India is very entrepreneurial about getting things done, ”he said.
The fund he co-founded in 2006 was Nexus Venture Partners, which now has over $ 2 billion in assets under management. Nexus has supported several promising startups, including the Postman API platform, the Olx online classifieds platform, the WhiteHat Jr coding platform and edtech Unacademy.
Gupta was also the CEO of Red Hat prior to IBM’s acquisition of the company.
Sumanth Raghavendra, a Bangalore-based entrepreneur, said in a tweet that several generations of Indian startups are “grateful” to Gupta.
He embodied everything a founder expects from an investor and always supported founders unconditionally, especially when they were in a difficult position.
– Kunal Bahl (@ 1kunalbahl) December 26, 2021
“Naren was a fixture in the global tech and entrepreneurial ecosystem and a pioneer of Indian venture capital. He has been a mentor and close friend of all of us at Nexus and we will miss his passion, caring nature and superior intellect, “a fund spokesman said in a statement on Sunday evening.
“He leaves behind his wife Vinita Gupta and two daughters. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this very difficult time. “
