Prosus’ Ashutosh Sharma on Swiggy’s IPO, Byju’s implosion, and Prosus’ gameplan in India

For Prosus, one of the world’s largest technology investors, 2024 proved to be a pivotal year. On the one hand, the Netherlands-based firm wrote off its $500 million investment in Byju’s after multiple failed recovery efforts. On the other, it booked significant gains by taking Swiggy, its largest Indian investment, public.

Amid this whirlwind, Ashutosh Sharma, Prosus’ India head, has been a busy man. Sharma, who began his career as a coder nearly two decades ago, transitioned into venture capital soon after completing his MBA at the University of Chicago in 2010. He joined Qualcomm Ventures as an Investment Manager and has remained a venture capitalist ever since.

After spending two and a half years at Qualcomm Ventures, Sharma moved to Norwest Venture Partners as vice president. At Norwest, he led investments in companies such as Zenoti, ElasticRun, and CRMNext. While Swiggy had already caught his attention during this time, he couldn’t invest in the company while at Norwest.