Celesta Capital, a global deep tech venture capital firm, announced that technology investor and product leader Anand Chandrasekaran has joined as a Managing Partner. Chandrasekaran has over 20 years of experience identifying transformative startups and founding and scaling global companies. He previously served as a Partner at General Catalyst and a product leader at Meta, Five9, Bharti Airtel, Snapdeal, and others.
Chandrasekaran most recently served as President and co-founder of AI-native contact center startup Crescendo AI, which he helped incubate and spin out of General Catalyst along with co-founder Andy Lee. Crescendo recently announced $50 million in financing and the acquisition of customer experience company PartnerHero. Chandrasekaran will continue at Crescendo as he transitions into his Managing Partner role at Celesta.
Chandrasekaran is also a seed investor in over 80 companies, seven of which are valued at over $1 billion. For the past three years, HURUN India has recognized him as India’s top seed investor. As a Partner at General Catalyst, Chandrasekaran led investments in Loop Health, Eeki Foods, Orange Health, FarMart, Magma, Jeh Aerospace, and others.
Chandrasekaran will use his consumer and enterprise software expertise to complement Celesta’s strong track record in the hardware and semiconductor space. He will focus on opportunities within the AI tech stack.
At Celesta, Chandrasekaran joins a seasoned global team of investment professionals, technologists, and operating executives led by Founding Managing Partners Nic Brathwaite, Michael Marks, and Viswanathan. Chandrasekaran’s addition to Celesta follows the recent appointment of Nobel Laureate Biochemist Dr. Jim Rothman as a Senior Advisor, and Celesta Managing Partner Arun Kumar (former CEO of KPMG India and Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets in the Obama Administration).
KEY QUOTES:
“Company creation and building has been my passion for the past two decades. It was clear from getting to know the Celesta team through their investment in Crescendo that they share this dedication. I look forward to adding to the team’s vision and further strengthening the firm’s muscle as deep tech investors and company builders.”
- Anand Chandrasekaran
“We are delighted to welcome Anand to Celesta Capital. What truly sets Anand apart is his rare combination of expertise as a technologist, operator, and investor. Anand has also been a recognized leader within the Silicon Valley – India tech corridor for decades, and his perspective aligns perfectly with our belief in the opportunity for this ecosystem to deliver the next generation of leading technology companies.”
- Sriram Viswanathan, Founding Managing Partner at Celesta
