Synopsis
Three former Peak XV Partners, Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal, and Tejeshwi Sharma, have launched Mettle Capital. The new venture capital fund aims to raise $350-400 million. Mettle Capital will invest in Indian startups at Series A and B stages, with selective seed bets. The fund plans to close its fundraising within the next quarter and begin deploying capital by September-October.Listen to this article in summarized format
The trio in February abruptly announced that they were leaving Peak XV in what was seen as a high-profile departure from the fund, adding to the heightened churn across top ranks of India-focused venture capital firms.
Mettle Capital plans to back startups at Series A and B stages with selective seed bets, these people said.
“They have started conversations with limited partners (or fund sponsors) in the US and will also tap funding from Europe and Asia. While a majority of capital will come from foreign LPs, they will also raise domestic funds,” said a person in the know of the matter.
Mettle, which will aim to close 5-6 investments annually, is looking to close the fundraise within the next quarter and begin deploying capital by September–October, another person familiar with the matter said.
“The firm is building a strategy around backing startups in the fast-growing enterprise artificial intelligence, deeptech and consumer internet spaces,” the person added.
Agrawal, Mittal and Sharma did not respond to ET’s queries till press time Wednesday.
VC churn continues
The February exits came close on the heels of three other partner-level departures—Shailesh Lakhani, Abheek Anand and Harshjit Sethi who quit the fund over the past year. Lakhani and Sethi have since launched Ambition Capital, targeting $250 million for early-stage investments across seed and Series A rounds, ET reported first on March 16.
Agrawal, Mittal and Sharma left the fund following disagreements over economics and executive pay-outs, managing director Shailendra Singh told ET on the day their departures were announced. Singh said that while differences existed, the firm was "completely comfortable" with the partners' decision to leave.
The trio had each spent over a decade at Peak XV, including at predecessor Sequoia Capital India, investing across consumer internet, fintech and enterprise software.
Agrawal's standout bet was Groww, where he led the fund’s investment in 2019. Peak XV invested a total of Rs 200–250 crore in the online brokerage and has since sold shares worth nearly Rs 2,700 crore, including through its November 2025 IPO and a block deal on May 12. The fund currently holds a stake valued at over Rs 18,000 crore in the new-age stockbroker, translating to a return multiple of over 94x.
Agrawal, winner of the Midas Touch category at The ET Startup Awards 2025 for picking Groww at an early stage, also led Peak XV's investments in ProgCap, Leap Finance and Toddle.
Mittal backed payments major Razorpay, which is preparing for a public listing, as well as personal care brand Mamaearth that listed in 2023. Sharma led the firm's bets on enterprise software firm Atlan, fintech startups Scapia and Cred and SaaS company Whatfix.
India's IPO boom has been a confidence builder for a younger crop of general partners (GPs) making their case to limited partners (LPs). "Now that India is seeing a bunch of IPOs and exits, investors are able to show liquidity—this is changing the dynamics at funds as VCs build their track records. What will be key is clear differentiation and focus areas for LPs to back independent, first-time GPs," said an early-stage investor.
Other offshoots from Sequoia Capital India include A91 Partners, founded in 2018 by Abhay Pandey, VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago; and WestBridge Capital, set up in 2011 by Sumir Chadha, KP Balaraj, SK Jain and Sandeep Singhal — who had originally founded Sequoia Capital India before departing to revive their earlier fund. Former Peak XV managing director Piyush Gupta launched secondaries-focused Kenro Capital in 2024.
