After honing his technology investment skills for five years at Susquehanna Growth Equity, Shalin Mehta has taken on the role of a solo general partner at his own growth equity firm. He successfully secured $85 million in capital commitments for his inaugural fund.
During his tenure at Susquehanna, the 28-year-old spearheaded investments in companies like NoRedInk and MuckRack. Now, heading SEVA, a firm he established earlier this year, Mehta aims to support customer-centric founders of rapidly growing, bootstrapped companies looking to scale through profitable growth, as he revealed to TechCrunch.
Mehta, along with three other team members, leads SEVA, a name inspired by the Sanskrit word denoting “selfless service.”
“If anything, I have served in the last decade of my career, it’s customer-centric founders and companies. That’s why I made the decision to start SEVA earlier this year,” explained Mehta.
SEVA joins a growing cohort of emerging fund managers launching their debut funds this year, such as Avra, Faction Ventures, Yellow, Garuda Ventures, Ovni Capital, Oversubscribed Ventures, Emblem, Venture Guides, The Family Fund, and Phenomenal Ventures.
Unlike some emerging fund managers facing challenges in raising initial funds over the past year, SEVA efficiently closed on $85 million in a brief period—four months—surpassing its initial target of $50 million.
The fund’s support stems from institutional investors, university endowments, charitable foundations, family offices, and founders previously invested in by Mehta during his roles at Susquehanna and Spectrum Equity. These bootstrapped founders align with those SEVA aims to invest in.
Although Mehta has yet to make any investments from SEVA Fund I, the plan is to invest in eight to 10 companies over the next three to five years. Checks ranging from $5 million to $15 million will be written into profitable, founder-led companies. His expertise lies in internet, software, data, marketplace, and technology-enabled services companies.
Additionally, Mehta has established a network of founders and growth-stage technology executives to collaborate with portfolio companies in strategic planning, executive hiring, and go-to-market initiatives, facilitating long-term growth, profitability, and exit planning.
Mehta perceives SEVA as somewhat distinct from other investment firms, positioning itself between private equity and venture capital.
“I’ve committed my entire investing career to investing in bootstrapped or founder-led, profitable, fast-growing, technology-enabled companies, those that don’t need venture capital or growth-stage ventures or they don’t want to sell control,” said Mehta. “They want more of a consigliere. We’re not a billion-dollar growth equity or buyout firm, we’re kind of squarely in between where the founders and companies we work with. They don’t need us, they want us.”
