Zodius is pleased to announce the appointment of Varun Laul as Managing Director for its future funds. He will be a part of the future fund team that is led by Shilpa Kulkarni.

Neeraj Bhargava, will continue to lead the existing Zodius funds till the eventual exits from all the existing portfolio, and will also be an advisor and Investment Committee member on future funds. 

Prior to joining Zodius, Varun was a part of the founding team at Providence Equity for its New Delhi office, and in his last role at Providence, he was responsible for the firm’s activities in India and South Asia. Varun comes to Zodius with a rich experience of over 17 years, wherein he has worked as an investment banker with DSP Merrill Lynch and as a management consultant with AT Kearney. He began his career with Hindustan Unilever in sales and consumer marketing. 

As a member of the Zodius Investment Team, his key responsibility will be to identify and invest in fast growing companies and continue to build the Zodius franchise. 

Says Shilpa Kulkarni, Managing Director: “We are delighted to have Varun join the Zodius team. The knowledge and expertise that he brings with him will be a tremendous asset to the firm as we build the Zodius platform.”

On the appointment, Varun Laul said, “Zodius represents a great opportunity to identify and grow market leaders in digital consumption and enterprise technology space in India. I am excited to embark on the ambitious journey to further scale Zodius as a leading platform for new economy businesses, leveraging Avendus' deep integration in the ecosystem and KKR's global connect and knowledge.” 

The Zodius platform, a private equity investor in digital companies, was acquired by Avendus Capital last year. Added Ranu Vohra, Managing Director and CEO of Avendus, “Varun’s appointment is in line with the company’s enhanced focus on taking the alternative investments business to the next level of growth with highly differentiated offerings. Digital and Technology eco-system presents a great opportunity for investment in India, and Zodius will be at its core.” 

About Avendus and Zodius 

The Avendus Group (Avendus) is a leading provider of financial services with an emphasis on customized solutions in the areas of Investment Banking, Wealth Management, Structured Credit Solutions and Alternative Asset Management.

 Zodius, an Avendus brand, invests in high growth and market-defining India-centric businesses targeting the Enterprise Software & Services, Big Data & Analytics and Consumer Mobile/Internet markets. The strong advisory team based in Mumbai adds significant domain expertise, operational experience and global networks to the portfolio companies in order to support their plans to become highly valued market leaders in Indian and global markets. Benefiting from Zodius’ experience in strategy, M&A, finance, sales & marketing and building high performance organizations, the entrepreneurs are able to connect their vision-toexecution dots faster and develop their businesses more effectively. 

For more information, please visit: www.zodius.com, www.avendus.com