Ranjan Pai’s Claypond Capital Appoints Sekhar Garisa As New MD

Claypond Capital, the family investment office of Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai, has appointed former Microsoft executive Sekhar Garisa as its new managing director. 

Commenting on Garisa’s appointment, Pai said, “I am happy that Sekhar is coming on board and with his experience and skill sets, he will add tremendous value to our portfolio companies and founders”.

An alumni of NIT Warangal and IIM Lucknow, Garisa has nearly two decades of experience under his belt, spanning sectors like FMCG, consumer internet, and consulting. Prior to joining Claypond, he served as the president of product businesses at Quess Corp. He also served in leadership roles at companies like Microsoft, McKinsey and P&G in the past. 

“… We are building Claypond Capital to be the partner of choice of India’s entrepreneurs through a strong ‘Entrepreneur First approach’ – Confidence capital coupled with long term commitment to the vision of the founders. I am very excited to work closely with founders as they build transformative businesses,” Garisa said on this appointment. 

This is the second major appointment by the family office in the past four months. In January, Claypond Capital roped in former MD of Wipro-GE Healthcare, Shravan Subramanyam, as the head of the family office’s medical technology platform. 

Founded in 2023, Claypond Capital is led by veteran investment banker Shyam Powar. It has invested in startups like quick commerce major Zepto, healthtech platform HealthifyMe, digital pharmacy PharmEasy, among others.

In January, the Bengaluru-based family office participated in fintech startup GrayQuest’s INR 80 Cr Series B round. Claypond also co-led lending tech startup Easy Home Finance’s $35 Mn Series B funding round. 

While family offices traditionally focussed on managing real estate, equity and fixed-income portfolios, they have lately broadened their horizons to include startup investments. The growing maturity of the Indian startup ecosystem and a wave of startup IPOs has made the new-age tech ecosystem an attractive bet for family offices. 

On the other hand, startups see family offices as an attractive bet due to their deep understanding of the Indian market, consumer behaviour, and regulatory landscape. Family offices also have the bandwidth to offer “patient capital”, which is pivotal for fuelling sectors with long gestation periods such as deeptech and cleantech.