Sequoia Capital hires Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav as CMO

Sequoia Capital hires Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav as CMO

The former Star India CMO will also work with Sequoia's portfolio companies to help build brands

Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav

MUMBAI: She built her reputation as a solid marketer building Star India, along with her boss Uday Shankar, as chief marketing officer and president – strategy & innovation. Now the dynamic marketing professional Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav has joined Sequoia Capital as chief marketing officer for India and south east Asia.

Says Yadav: “I am honoured to join Sequoia Capital India and help daring founders build legendary companies and brands. This is a seminal point of time in the development of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and there is a massive opportunity to create global brands out of the region. I am excited to join this amazing team and partner with an incredibly talented set of founders in achieving this mission.”

Sequoia Capital has, meanwhile, announced that it has completed other hires: Shweta Rajpal Kohli as head of public policy and Ajey Gore as operating partner, technology.

Sequoia Capital managing director Shaliendra Singh put out a post on LinkedIn welcoming the new joinees. He added that Gayatri will additionally be working closely with the group’s portfolio CMOs to help them launch and grow brands.

Highlighted Singh: “The team at Sequoia Capital India feels massively privileged to welcome industry leaders like Gayatri, Ajey and Shweta to our team. Their contributions will undoubtedly benefit dozens of founders and startups across India and SEA and make a dent in the years to come.”

Sequoia India has invested  at the very early stages in many startups including Citrus, Druva, Faaso's, FreeCharge, Grofers, Healthkart, India Shelter Finance, Mobikwik, Pine Labs, Practo, Prizm Payments, Scio Health and Zilingo.

Sequoia India recently  closed its sixth fund, at $695 million, which will be used to double down on investments in both early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and southeast Asia.

It has worked with many founders including Amit Kumat of Prataap Snacks, Ankiti Bose of Zilingo, Ankur Jain of Bira, Byju Raveendran of Byju's, Chatri Sityodtong of One Championship, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Dhiraj Rajaram of Mu Sigma, Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks, Jaspreet Singh of Druva, Kunal Shah of Freecharge, D. Lakshmipathy of Five Star Finance, Lokvir Kapoor of Pine Labs, Nadiem Makarim of Go-Jek, Rajul Garg of GlobalLogic, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO Rooms, Shashank ND of Practo, VSS Mani of JustDial, William Tanuwijaya of Tokopedia.

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