Anand Chandrasekaran joins Celesta Capital as Managing Partner – CNBC TV18

With over two decades of experience, Chandrasekaran has built a reputation for identifying and scaling transformative startups. A former Partner at General Catalyst, he also held leadership roles at Meta, Five9, Bharti Airtel, and Snapdeal.

“Company creation and building has been my passion for the past two decades,” said Chandrasekaran. “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.”

Most recently, Chandrasekaran co-founded Crescendo AI, an AI-native contact centre startup incubated within General Catalyst, which raised $50M in financing and acquired customer experience company PartnerHero. While transitioning into his role at Celesta, he will continue contributing to Crescendo’s growth, the VC firm said.

“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,” said Sriram Viswanathan, Founding Managing Partner at Celesta. “His leadership within the Silicon Valley – India tech corridor perfectly aligns with our belief in the ecosystem’s potential to create the next generation of leading technology companies.”

Ace seed-investor Chandrasekaran has invested in more than 80 startups, with 7 achieving unicorn status. His addition strengthens Celesta’s expertise in enterprise and consumer software, complementing its leadership in hardware, semiconductors, and AI innovation, the firm said in a statement.

Founded in 2013, Celesta Capital is a global venture capital firm with a portfolio of over 100 early-stage deep tech investments. Chandrasekaran joins Celesta’s team, which includes Founding Managing Partners Nic Brathwaite, Michael Marks, and Viswanathan. The firm brought in Nobel Laureate Dr Jim Rothman as a Senior Advisor.

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