Alok Goel quits SAIF Partners after five-year stint

Five years after serving as a managing director and partner at SAIF Partners, Alok Goel is moving on to return to entrepreneurship.

In a tweet, Goel said he would not be part of the new SAIF Partners India VII fund, but will remain a partner to the earlier IV, V and VI funds. SAIF Partners announced today that it is rebranding to Elevation Capital and has closed its latest fund at $400 million.

After awesome 5+ years at SAIF, I plan to pursue an independent entrepreneurial journey and hence will not to be part of the new @SAIFPartners Fund 7. Will remain a partner for fund 4/5/6 and help portfolio. Looking forward to sharing what i am planning next:)

— Alok Goel (@alokg) October 20, 2020

Focusing on early stage investments, Goel led the Gurugram-based firm’s bets on startups such as Factors.ai, Fareye, Goodera, Haber, Medtrail, Meesho, Sharechat, Superops, Toppr, Unacademy and Zomentum, as per his LinkedIn profile.

The former Freecharge CEO began his stint with the venture capital firm in 2015 when the online recharge platform was acquired by Snapdeal. Prior to Freecharge, Goel was COO of online bus ticketing firm redBus.in, which he quit after Naspers acquired the startup. 

He also worked for technology giant Google for five years in various roles, including that of product management for Google Display Network. He led the search and mobile products in India, besides serving as product manager for search and geo local in the country. 

The ISB, Hyderabad and Delhi College of Engineering alumnus was also part of companies such as Adobe Systems and HCL Technologies.

He invested in startups such as interior decor site Intruo and his wife Monica Rastogi’s food-tech startup Tapcibo -- rebranded Dazo -- in his personal capacity before joining SAIF Partners.