Peak XV says internal discord led to the exit of partners as it doubled down on its focus on artificial intelligence

Peak XV Partners, a leading venture capital firm in India and Southeast Asia, has witnessed a new round of senior staff departures. This follows other leadership exits over the past year as it moves forward with its plans to deepen its focus on AI investment and expand its presence in the US, while maintaining India as its largest market.

The latest departures stem from an internal disagreement with senior partner Ashish Agrawal (pictured above, left) which led to a mutual decision to part ways, managing director Shailendra Singh told TechCrunch. He added that two other partners, Ishaan Mittal (pictured above, right) and Tejashwi Sharma (pictured above, centre), chose to leave with him.

Peak XV does not want to delve into the details of the dispute and is focused on moving forward, Singh said. “Just out of privacy, and out of trying to be classy about it,” he said. Singh added that such departures were not uncommon in larger multi-stage companies and that Peak XV wanted to move on quickly after several years of working together.

All board seats held by the departing partners will be transferred “shortly,” Singh said, noting that the firm already has overlapping representation across several portfolio companies. Peak XV wasn’t concerned about continuity, he said, noting that several general partners and operating partners were already involved on many of those boards.

Departures indicate the exit of old investors from the company. Agrawal has been with Peak

Agrawal wrote in a LinkedIn post that he had decided to “go into entrepreneurship” and was teaming up with Mittal and Sharma to start a new venture capital firm. He described the move as an opportunity to build a new organization with long-standing partners and thanked Peak XV’s leadership for what he called a “really great partnership.”

During his time at Peak

Agrawal, Mittal and Sharma did not respond to messages for comment.

Peak XV also moved to strengthen its senior leadership from within. The firm on Tuesday promoted Abhishek Mohan to general partner, expanding its investment leadership position, while Saipriya Sarangan was promoted to chief operating officer, taking charge of firm-wide operations.

The leadership changes come amid a banner year for the Peak XV portfolio. Five of its companies – Groww, Pine Labs, Meesho, Wakefit and Capillary Technologies – went public in November and December 2025, generating approximately INR 300 billion (about US$3.33 billion) of unrealized mark-to-market gains for the company, as well as about INR 28 billion (about US$310.61 million) of realized gains from share sales during their IPOs.

In addition to the recent departures, Peak XV has seen a wider shift in its senior ranks over the past 12 months. Last year, long-time investment leaders Harshjit Sethi and Shailesh Lakhani exited the Indian team, while Abhik Anand and Peter Kemps left the firm’s operations in Southeast Asia. The company has also seen leadership changes across its marketing, policy and operations teams in recent months.

Singh rejected a widely held market view that many of the partners who led Peak He said many of the company’s most important results were led by long-time partners who remained at Peak XV, and argued that the company’s exit record does not hinge on any one individual.

Peak XV currently has seven general partners, along with several partners and principals, according to Singh.

The venture capital firm, which spun off from Sequoia Capital in 2023 and currently manages more than $10 billion in capital across 16 funds, has made about 80 AI-related investments, highlighting its push to deepen its focus on AI financing, Singh said. It is also preparing to open an office in the US in the next 90 days while expanding its global footprint, according to Singh, while continuing to view India as its largest and most important market.

Singh stated that the company believes that AI will reshape venture investing more profoundly than previous technological shifts, arguing that successful investing in AI requires investors with deep technical understanding rather than “general” experience. He added that Peak XV was looking to add more local AI talent, including researchers and engineers with backgrounds in machine learning and large-scale model development.

The firm has invested in over 400 companies, and its portfolio has seen over 35 IPOs and numerous mergers and acquisitions to date.