InnoVen Capital (InnoVen), pan-Asian venture debt platform jointly owned by UOB and Temasek, has appointed Ashish Sharma as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for India, effective immediately. Sharma replaces Chin Chao, CEO of InnoVen, Singapore and Southeast Asia, who had stepped in as interim CEO for India on 1 August 2017. Prior to joining Innoven, Sharma was President & CEO of GE Capital, India. He come with an experience of 19 years of experience within GE and GE Capital, having started his career as a management trainee under its Global Financial Management Program. He holds a degree of MBA from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research. The appointment comes at the time when InnoVen is actively investing in Indian startups. Shantanu Mitra, Chairman of InnoVen, said, “India is an important market for InnoVen – there is a vibrant start-up ecosystem here and InnoVen is well-positioned to drive and to support that growth.” InnoVen claims to have provided US$240 million in capital to around 100 tech start-ups across India, including OYO, Swiggy, Byju’s, Nestaway, Pepperfry, Shaadi.com, Shopclues, Myntra, Freecharge, Manthan Software, Firstcry, Practo and Capillary Technologies. Most recently, it provided debt funding of Rs 100 crore ($15.4 million) to Yatra.com.
