Permira appoints former Warburg Pincus executive Siddharth Narayan as India head

Narayan will be based out of Mumbai. At Warburg Pincus, Narayan focused on investment opportunities in digital and fast-growing businesses across the consumer internet, software, fintech and services sectors in India.

Narayan was based in Warburg Pincus’s New York office as part of its growth technology group. Before joining Warburg Pincus, he worked for Lightspeed Venture Partners and McKinsey & Company. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, as per his LinkedIn profile.

The firm said the new presence in India will add to Permira’s global footprint with a significant presence in APAC. Permira first opened offices in the region nearly 20 years ago, and the Permira funds have deployed over €4 billion in 12 investments in APAC since inception.

“I have been very impressed by Permira’s track record, deep understanding, and advisory networks across its key sectors. I am looking forward to working with the broader global team on investment opportunities in India. I believe that Permira will be able to bring significant value to fast-growing businesses, and entrepreneurs, in the Indian ecosystem,” said Narayan.

Founded in 1985, Permira advises funds with total assets under management (AUM) of over €60 billion and makes long-term majority and minority investments across private equity and credit. The funds have made nearly 300 private equity investments in key sectors like technology, consumer, healthcare and services.

Permira funds’ investments include McAfee, Mimecast, an email security and cyber resilience company, Reorg, a provider of data, analytics and intelligence for the credit markets, and Zendesk, a customer service software company.

Other investments include Tricor, the pan-Asia business expansion specialist, Yogiyo, a food delivery platform in South Korea, and I-MED, the diagnostic imaging services provider in Australia, Permira said it continues to see significant opportunities to back high-quality growth businesses across North Asia, South-East Asia, Australia and India.

“We believe it presents an attractive source of investment opportunities well-aligned to our investment strategy across consumer, services, technology and select sub-sectors in healthcare. Siddharth brings with him a wealth of relevant investment origination and execution experience, as well as an in-depth understanding of the Indian market,” said Daniel Tan, Head of Asia at Permira.

The firm employs over 450 people in 16 offices across Europe, the United States and Asia.