Growth-Stage Capital, Scale-Up & Pre-IPO Investment Leadership
Growth Equity
Executive Search
60+ Growth-Equity Placements — with an average 105 Days time-to-placement and a 12-month candidate guarantee.
60+
Growth-Equity Placements
105 Days
Avg. Time-to-Placement
87%
Offer Acceptance Rate
12 Months
Candidate Guarantee
Specialisation withinPrivate Equity & Venture Capital·Unlocking Value Through Leadership
Growth Equity is the scale-up-and-pre-IPO-capital tranche of India's PE ecosystem — the category that combines USD 30M-to-300M equity-ticket growth-stage investments in profitable-and-scaling privately-held Indian companies, minority-and-significant-minority-stake investments, pre-IPO / crossover investments, and the specific growth-stage value-creation architecture that sits between venture-capital and large-cap-buyout. The ecosystem spans the flagship global growth-equity funds' India operations (General Atlantic India — with strong Indian-growth-equity focus; Warburg Pincus India — the pioneer Indian-growth-investor with 25+ years and 200+ portfolio-companies spanning BFSI, healthcare, consumer, tech, industrials; TPG Growth India; Bain Capital India growth-equity allocations; KKR Growth India; Advent International India — growth-equity tranches; Apax Partners India; Permira India; CVC Growth India; Blackstone Growth India allocations; General Catalyst — through the growth-stage expansion; Insight Partners — fast-growing software-and-tech-focused growth investor; Coatue Management — technology-crossover), the India-focused growth-equity GPs (ChrysCapital Growth — with USD 2.25B latest fund; Kedaara Capital Growth — with USD 1.7B latest fund; Multiples Alternate Asset Management — growth-equity tranches; IIFL Asset Management; Avendus Capital Private Equity; ICICI Venture; HDFC Capital Advisors; Tata Capital Growth; Kotak Alternate Asset Managers; Edelweiss Alternatives), the sector-specific growth-equity specialists (Premji Invest — technology-and-consumer-growth; Verlinvest India — consumer-growth; Motilal Oswal Private Equity; True North Capital — mid-market-and-growth; Creador India; Everstone Capital; L Catterton — consumer-growth), the pre-IPO / crossover specialists (Fidelity India PE-crossover; T. Rowe Price crossover; Tiger Global crossover-and-growth-equity; SoftBank Vision Fund crossover; Prosus Ventures crossover), and the technology-focused growth equity specialists (Accel Growth; Lightspeed Partners Growth; Insight Partners India; Tiger Global India; DST Global India; Sequoia Capital India Growth — now Peak XV Partners Growth; Nexus Venture Partners Growth; Matrix Partners India Growth — now Z47 Growth; Stride Ventures). Leadership here requires fluency in growth-stage-deal-origination architecture, significant-minority-and-influence-driving-board-role discipline, portfolio-company scale-up support, pre-IPO / IPO-preparation stewardship, and the specific growth-equity fund-management rhythm.
Is This Your Situation?
If any of these sound familiar, you're speaking to the right practice.
→Global growth-equity India operation running Managing Director / Senior-Partner succession — confidential search across growth-stage-deal-origination credibility and portfolio-company-scale-up-support stewardship.
→India-focused growth-equity GP running Managing Partner succession — search across LP-relationship-and-fundraising credibility and domestic-growth-equity stewardship.
→Growth-equity-backed portfolio company entering its scale-up / pre-IPO phase hiring a CEO with scale-up-execution and IPO-readiness credibility.
→Technology-growth-equity fund running Principal / VP succession — search across technology-growth-equity investment credibility and portfolio-monitoring stewardship.
Our Growth Equity Track Record
Situation:
A global growth-equity fund scaling its India team needed Managing Director succession for its financial-services-and-healthcare growth-equity practice. The brief required growth-stage-deal-origination credibility, BFSI-and-healthcare sector-investment stewardship, portfolio-company-scale-up-support discipline, and the governance rhythm of global-growth-equity India operations.
Outcome:
Placed a Managing Director with prior Partner-tenure at a competing global growth-equity fund (with 12+ years of India-growth-equity experience across BFSI and healthcare) and subsequent Head-of-Investments tenure at a domestic growth-equity GP. The fund's BFSI-and-healthcare deployment pace and portfolio-outcomes progressed ahead of plan within 24 months.
Situation:
A growth-equity-backed consumer platform approaching its DRHP-filing / IPO phase needed CFO succession. The brief required IPO-readiness architecture credibility, SEBI-ICDR-and-DRHP stewardship, financial-controls-and-management-reporting discipline, investor-relations-and-listed-company-governance architecture fluency, and the specific pre-IPO-execution rhythm.
Outcome:
Placed a CFO with prior CFO tenure at a listed consumer operator and subsequent Head-of-Finance tenure at another growth-equity-backed consumer platform that had successfully IPO'd. The portfolio-company's DRHP filing, SEBI-clearances, and IPO-listing completed on schedule with material book-building-and-valuation outcomes.
All client details anonymised. Specific mandates available for reference under NDA upon request.
Our Growth Equity Practice
Growth Equity is the scale-up-and-pre-IPO-capital tranche of India's PE ecosystem — the category that combines USD 30M-to-300M equity-ticket growth-stage investments in profitable-and-scaling privately-held Indian companies, minority-and-significant-minority-stake investments, pre-IPO / crossover investments, and the specific growth-stage value-creation architecture that sits between venture-capital and large-cap-buyout. The ecosystem spans the flagship global growth-equity funds' India operations (General Atlantic India — with strong Indian-growth-equity focus; Warburg Pincus India — the pioneer Indian-growth-investor with 25+ years and 200+ portfolio-companies spanning BFSI, healthcare, consumer, tech, industrials; TPG Growth India; Bain Capital India growth-equity allocations; KKR Growth India; Advent International India — growth-equity tranches; Apax Partners India; Permira India; CVC Growth India; Blackstone Growth India allocations; General Catalyst — through the growth-stage expansion; Insight Partners — fast-growing software-and-tech-focused growth investor; Coatue Management — technology-crossover), the India-focused growth-equity GPs (ChrysCapital Growth — with USD 2.25B latest fund; Kedaara Capital Growth — with USD 1.7B latest fund; Multiples Alternate Asset Management — growth-equity tranches; IIFL Asset Management; Avendus Capital Private Equity; ICICI Venture; HDFC Capital Advisors; Tata Capital Growth; Kotak Alternate Asset Managers; Edelweiss Alternatives), the sector-specific growth-equity specialists (Premji Invest — technology-and-consumer-growth; Verlinvest India — consumer-growth; Motilal Oswal Private Equity; True North Capital — mid-market-and-growth; Creador India; Everstone Capital; L Catterton — consumer-growth), the pre-IPO / crossover specialists (Fidelity India PE-crossover; T. Rowe Price crossover; Tiger Global crossover-and-growth-equity; SoftBank Vision Fund crossover; Prosus Ventures crossover), and the technology-focused growth equity specialists (Accel Growth; Lightspeed Partners Growth; Insight Partners India; Tiger Global India; DST Global India; Sequoia Capital India Growth — now Peak XV Partners Growth; Nexus Venture Partners Growth; Matrix Partners India Growth — now Z47 Growth; Stride Ventures). Leadership here requires fluency in growth-stage-deal-origination architecture, significant-minority-and-influence-driving-board-role discipline, portfolio-company scale-up support, pre-IPO / IPO-preparation stewardship, and the specific growth-equity fund-management rhythm.
We place leaders across global growth-equity India operations, India-focused growth-equity GPs, sector-specific growth-equity specialists, and pre-IPO / crossover specialists. Engagements include Managing Director / Partner / Principal searches for growth-equity funds, Vice-President / Director placements, Operating-Partner placements, Head of Technology-Growth placements, and portfolio-company CEO / CFO succession (growth-stage portfolio companies run material CEO-CFO-CHRO-CTO turnover in the scale-up and pre-IPO phases).
As a specialist CEO mandates in growth-equity-backed companies, our practice also covers CFO placements in growth-equity-backed companies, our practice also covers Private Equity & Venture Capital practice overview, and as a source for PE/VC — venture capital.
The Growth Equity Landscape Today
India's growth-equity market deployed ~USD 15-25 billion annually across 2023-24 with 150-250 transactions in the USD 30M-300M ticket-size range. Growth-equity is the most active segment of Indian PE in terms of transaction-count (though mid-sized in ticket-value). Warburg Pincus is the largest and longest-tenured growth-equity-investor in India (25+ years, 200+ portfolio-companies) with notable investments including Kotak Mahindra Bank (the iconic growth-equity investment of the 1990s-2000s), Bharti Airtel, Max Group, PVR, Lemon Tree, and a current portfolio spanning Kalyan Jewellers, Mankind Pharma, Biocon Biologics, Clean Max, Fractal Analytics, and many more. General Atlantic (GA) has a comparable Indian-growth-equity portfolio including Byju's (historically), Unacademy, Jio, Reliance Retail Ventures, KFin Technologies, Mu Sigma, and others. ChrysCapital (USD 5B+ cumulative deployment across 10 funds) has one of the longest-tenured India-focused growth-equity practices with portfolio including GeBBS Healthcare, HDFC Life, KIMS Health, Intas Pharma, Magma Fincorp (merged with Poonawalla), Mankind Pharma, and Ratnakar Bank. Kedaara Capital (founded by ex-General Atlantic and Temasek executives) has scaled rapidly to USD 1.7B with a 2024-vintage fund deployed across Aavas Financiers, Avaana Capital, LenDenClub, Manjushree Technopack, Spandana Sphoorty, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd-partner transactions and many more. Multiples Alternate Asset Management is a prominent India-focused GP. IIFL AM, Avendus PE, ICICI Venture, and the Tata Capital / Kotak / Edelweiss alternatives-platforms operate mid-market-and-growth-equity strategies. The technology-growth-equity tranche (Accel Growth, Lightspeed Growth, Tiger Global India, Insight Partners, Peak XV Growth, DST Global, Coatue, Insight Partners) deployed material capital across software-SaaS, fintech, consumer-internet, and deep-tech. The crossover-and-pre-IPO tranche saw significant deployment into late-stage IPO-bound companies including Swiggy (pre-IPO 2024, listed November 2024), Zomato (listed 2021), Nykaa (listed 2021), Paytm (listed 2021), FirstCry (listed 2024), Mamaearth / Honasa (listed 2023), Delhivery (listed 2022), and Niva Bupa (listed 2024). Portfolio-company CEO-and-CxO succession at growth-equity-backed companies is among the most active sub-markets of the executive-search industry in India.
Key Leadership Challenges in Growth Equity
Managing Director / Partner succession for global growth-equity India operations (Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic, TPG Growth, Bain Growth, KKR Growth, Advent, Apax) — leaders with growth-stage-deal-origination credibility, multi-sector-growth-investment stewardship, portfolio-company-scale-up-support discipline, and the governance rhythm of global-growth-equity India operations.
Managing Partner / Senior-Partner succession for India-focused growth-equity GPs (ChrysCapital, Kedaara, Multiples, IIFL AM, Avendus PE, Tata Capital Growth) — leaders with LP-relationship-and-fundraising credibility, domestic-growth-equity stewardship, and the governance rhythm of domestic-GP management.
Operating-Partner placements — growth-equity funds need Operating-Partners with scale-up-operating-expertise, specific-sector-value-creation discipline, and the governance rhythm of operating-partner-model.
Vice-President / Director / Principal placements — growth-equity funds need investment-professionals with multi-sector deal-execution credibility, portfolio-monitoring stewardship, and the specific growth-equity investment rhythm.
Portfolio-company CEO succession — growth-equity-backed portfolio companies need CEOs with scale-up-execution credibility, PE-board-and-Investment-Committee stewardship, growth-and-unit-economics discipline, and the specific growth-equity-backed-CEO rhythm.
Pre-IPO / IPO-preparation CEO-and-CFO placements — growth-equity-backed portfolio companies approaching IPO need CEOs / CFOs with IPO-readiness architecture credibility, SEBI-ICDR-and-DRHP stewardship, and the specific pre-IPO-execution rhythm.
What We Look For in Growth Equity Leaders
Across mandates, growth equity leadership tends to cluster into a small set of archetypes. We calibrate each search against the profile your board actually needs — not the one most commonly available.
The Growth-Equity Managing Director / Partner
Investment-professional senior executive with growth-stage-deal-origination credibility, multi-sector-growth-investment stewardship, portfolio-company-scale-up-support discipline, LP-coverage architecture fluency, and the governance rhythm of global-growth-equity India operations.
The India-Focused Growth-Equity Managing Partner
Senior investment-professional with LP-relationship-and-fundraising credibility, domestic-growth-equity stewardship, GP-succession-and-management discipline, multi-fund-platform architecture fluency, and the governance rhythm of domestic-GP management.
The Operating-Partner (Growth-Equity)
Former-CEO / CXO leader with scale-up-operating-expertise, specific-sector-value-creation discipline (financial-services, healthcare, consumer, technology, industrials), Investment-Committee-engagement stewardship, and the specific operating-partner-model rhythm.
The Growth-Equity-Backed Portfolio-Company CEO
Executive with scale-up-execution credibility, PE-board-and-Investment-Committee stewardship, growth-and-unit-economics discipline, IPO-readiness architecture fluency, and the specific growth-equity-backed-CEO rhythm.
The Pre-IPO / IPO-Ready CFO
Finance executive with IPO-readiness architecture credibility, SEBI-ICDR-and-DRHP stewardship, financial-controls-and-management-reporting discipline, investor-relations-and-listed-company-governance architecture fluency, and the specific pre-IPO-and-public-markets rhythm.
The Technology-Growth-Equity Principal / VP
Technology-focused investment-professional with software-SaaS-and-consumer-internet-and-fintech growth-equity credibility, unit-economics-and-Rule-of-40-and-LTV/CAC architecture fluency, technology-company-board-and-portfolio-monitoring stewardship, and the specific technology-growth-equity investment rhythm.
Regulatory & Compensation Context
Regulatory Backdrop
Growth-equity activity sits at the intersection of the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations 2012 (as amended — growth-equity funds register as Category-II AIFs), the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 with FEMA Non-Debt Instruments Rules 2019 and FDI Press-Note architecture, the Companies Act 2013 (including Section 62 for preferential-allotment, Section 42 for private-placement, Section 230-234 for amalgamation), the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations 2011 (Takeover Code — where growth-equity acquires listed-company-stakes), the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2018 (SEBI ICDR — for IPO-readiness and DRHP / RHP architecture), the SEBI (LODR) Regulations 2015 (for listed-portfolio companies), the SEBI (PIT — Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations 2015, the Competition Act 2002 (for M&A-clearance above turnover / asset thresholds), the Income-Tax Act 1961 (including Section 56 valuation, Section 68/56 angel-tax architecture, and the grandfathering architecture), the GIFT-City IFSC AIF architecture under the IFSCA, and the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations 2020. The SEBI AIF-Regulations amendments through 2024-25 have tightened accredited-investor architecture and enhanced disclosure. The DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) maintains the FDI-policy architecture. For sector-specific investments, sectoral-caps apply — BFSI (74% in insurance, 20% in private-banks without government-approval), defence (74% automatic + 100% government-approval), media (26% in news-media), etc. The FDI-policy amendment of April 2020 requiring government-route-approval for FDI from land-border-sharing-countries is relevant. For crossover-investments into listed-companies, the Takeover Code 25%-threshold, creeping-acquisition architecture, and ICDR-pre-IPO-lock-in architecture apply. The Companies (Prospectus and Allotment of Securities) Rules 2014 apply to private-placement-of-securities into portfolio-companies. For offshore-fund-structures, Mauritius / Singapore / DIFC / Cayman / Delaware structures are common.
Compensation Architecture
Growth-equity leadership compensation is carry-heavy on top of substantial base-and-bonus architecture. Managing Director / Senior-Partner compensation at global growth-equity India operations ranges ₹3-7 crore base + ₹3-7 crore annual bonus + substantial carried-interest (typically 5-12% of fund-level carry allocations for senior partners); Principal / Director compensation ranges ₹2-4.5 crore base + bonus + smaller carry allocation; Vice-President compensation ranges ₹1.5-3 crore base + bonus + junior-carry allocation. Operating-Partner compensation ranges ₹3-6 crore base + ₹1.5-3.5 crore annual bonus + sector-and-portfolio-linked-carry architecture. Managing Partner at India-focused growth-equity GPs (ChrysCapital, Kedaara, Multiples) operates at globally-comparable base-plus-carry architecture with Indian-LP and global-LP-commitments driving carry-economics. Growth-equity-backed portfolio-company CEO compensation ranges ₹5-18 crore fixed + bonus + material equity-architecture (typically 0.5-2.5% sweet-equity / management-equity-programme with value-creation-milestone vesting); portfolio-company CFO compensation ranges ₹2.5-7 crore + equity-architecture. Pre-IPO / IPO-ready CFO compensation includes material IPO-linked bonus architecture (typically 50-200% of annual base on successful listing). Technology-growth-equity Principal / VP compensation is at globally-comparable architecture with material carry-allocation.
Roles We Typically Place
Why Gladwin International Leadership Advisors for Growth Equity
Managing Director / Partner / Principal / Vice-President searches for global growth-equity India operations.
Managing Partner / Senior-Partner searches for India-focused growth-equity GPs.
Operating-Partner placements with scale-up-operating-expertise.
Portfolio-company CEO / CFO / CHRO / CTO succession at growth-equity-backed companies.
Pre-IPO / IPO-preparation CEO / CFO placements.
Sector-specific growth-equity investment-leader placements (financial-services, healthcare, consumer, technology, industrials, energy).
Investor-Relations and LP-Coverage Head placements for growth-equity funds.
Organisations We Serve
Warburg Pincus India, General Atlantic India, TPG Growth India, Bain Capital India growth-equity, KKR Growth India, Advent International India growth, Apax Partners India, Permira India, CVC Growth India, Blackstone Growth India
ChrysCapital, Kedaara Capital, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, True North Capital
IIFL Asset Management, Avendus Capital Private Equity, ICICI Venture, HDFC Capital, Tata Capital Growth, Kotak Alternate Asset Managers, Edelweiss Alternatives
Premji Invest, Motilal Oswal Private Equity, Creador India, Everstone Capital, Verlinvest India, L Catterton India
Technology-growth-equity (Accel Growth, Lightspeed Growth, Tiger Global India, Insight Partners India, Peak XV Partners Growth, Matrix / Z47 Growth, Nexus Growth, DST Global, Coatue)
Pre-IPO / crossover (Fidelity India PE-crossover, T. Rowe Price crossover, SoftBank Vision Fund crossover, Prosus Ventures crossover)
Growth-equity-backed portfolio-companies across BFSI, healthcare, consumer, technology, industrials — representing the demand-side of portfolio CEO / CxO succession mandates
Limited-Partner institutional-investors active in Indian growth-equity (sovereign-wealth-funds, pension-funds, insurance-funds, endowments, FoFs)
Growth Equity leaders assessed on the PE & VC “PRISM” framework
Seven dimensions calibrated for PE and VC portfolio company leadership. Dimensions are calibrated for growth equity mandates where relevant.
Parent Practice
Return to Private Equity & Venture Capital
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