VenturEast Names Ex-DFJ Partner Sateesh Andra As Managing Partner

VenturEast said it appointment of Sateesh Andra to be managing partner of its seed-stage technology focused VenturEast Tenet Fund. Andra was previously a venture partner and one of the founding members of Draper Fisher Jurvetson India. In his new role, he will help create a Valley-like incubation ecosystem and help companies tap into global venture funding.

PRESS RELEASE

Ex-Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Partner VC to Lead Charge in India and Bring Valley-like Incubation Ecosystem to Entrepreneurs

Andra Roped-in to Lead Investments in Hot Sectors Including Social Business, Mobility, Cleantech

San Francisco, Calif., and Hyderabad, India Oct 2. 2012- Google Holdings backed Indian venture capital firm, VenturEast today announced the appointment of Sateesh Andra as the Managing Partner for their   premier seed-stage technology focused VenturEast Tenet Fund. Andra has been leading Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) investments in India over the last five years. In his new role, Andra will lead the charge in helping portfolio companies scale from local to global markets by providing strategic counsel for global customer and partner acquisition. He will help create a Valley-like incubation ecosystem and help companies tap into global VC funding. The fund is launching at $10M and  Andra is targeting a corpus of $50 million for the next fund.

.Voted as one of the best Venture Capital Funds for 2012, investors of VenturEast include prestigious global and Indian institutions like Lemelson Foundation, Proactive Fund, SIDBI Venture Capital Limited andTechnology Development Board. Sponsored by Ventureast, the Tenet Fund is promoted by the Tenet Group of IIT Chennai which is spearheaded by Ashok Jhunjhunwala, academician and startup evangelist in India.

“We are excited to bring Andra in this role. There could not be a better fit or timing,” said Sarath Naru, Founder and Managing Partner, Ventureast. “Having been on both sides of the fence as a successful entrepreneur and as a Venture Partner, we know he can skillfully negotiate the gaps between strategy and execution on a global platform. His management style will be an asset to our companies as he is not one to hesitate rolling up his sleeves and get in the trenches when the company so needs.”

Andra will focus on early stage startups in technology sectors including Mobile, Cloud, Internet and high-impact Social businesses. Companies that bring technology-enabled innovation in Education Healthcare and Financial Services will be core to his portfolio. Andra is known for his commitment to encouraging entrepreneurship in Cleantech, and will continue to support innovation in this sector.

“Andra looks for passionate and focused entrepreneurs as partners, and has a unique ability to attract deal flow and manage relationships with VCs and strategic investors,” said Jhunjhunwala. “Andra’s appointment is an important step towards helping Indian companies navigate complex interconnected global markets giving Indian entrepreneurs a level playing field with Silicon Valley companies.”

About Sateesh Andra, Managing Partner, Ventureast
Sateesh Andra has worked with venture-backed technology start-ups in US and India for the past fourteen years. With hands-on start-up experience and in-depth knowledge of the dynamics of VC funding, he looks for passionate and focused entrepreneurs as partners. Prior to joining VenturEast, Sateesh was a Venture Partner and one of the founding members of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) India, a venture capital fund investing in category leading technology and cleantech companies like iYogi, Cleartrip, Komli, Canvera, Attero etc. He helped launch Hyderabad Angels, a platform to provide seed capital to start ups. As a private investor earlier, Sateesh has also invested in early stage US and Indian venture capital funds.

Prior to DFJ, Andra co-founded Euclid, a leader in the IT Management Software space, and was instrumental in raising over $35M in VC funding, acquiring and managing marquee customers and partners. He has also served in product marketing and engineering leadership roles at Tsqware (Conexant), LSI Logic, and VLSI Technology (Philips). Sateesh holds U.S. patents in Communications and Networking and has published several articles on Business – IT Alignment.

Andra holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in electrical engineering. He is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).  He is pursuing Doctorate in Business Administration from Grenoble<LINK>. The title of his thesis will be, “How Technology Entrepreneurship is different in Emerging Markets like India?” where Andra will analyze strategies adopted by select India based startups from technology sector like Internet, Mobile and Cloud to create success, and compare and contrast the same with Silicon Valley Startups.”

About Ventureast Tenet Fund
Ventureast Tenet Fund is a first-of-its-kind Incubation and Seed Stage Venture Capital fund focused on technology (Cloud, Mobile and Internet), and technology-enabled services startups in healthcare, education, financial services and cleantech sectors. Additionally, the Fund invests in startups that better leverage technologies to gain rapid leadership in meeting the needs of the digital divide/bottom of the pyramid sectors in India. Ventureast Tenet Fund is sponsored by Ventureast, a venture capital and private equity firm with over $300 million under management and the Tenet Group of IIT, Madras.