Elevation Capital, an early-stage VC firm in India, announced the appointment of Krishna Mehra as a Partner to lead SaaS and AI investments for the fund.
Mehra will play a pivotal role in further enhancing Elevation’s commitment to the India-US corridor. This addition is particularly crucial as Indian SaaS and AI founders increasingly look to serve global markets from day one. Mehra’s presence deepens the firm’s engagement with Indian diaspora founders, who are leveraging talent and innovation across both ecosystems.
In his latest stint at Meta, Krishna led engineering for messaging ads, driving $10 billion+ in revenue with AI-driven products and deploying some of the world’s largest machine-learning models, including early adoption of Meta’s Llama.
Prior to Meta, he architected enterprise-grade, exabyte-scale cloud systems at Cohesity. Mehra co-founded Capillary Technologies in 2008, helping establish India’s early SaaS landscape and scaling the company to serve 300 million consumers globally. He later co-founded Taro, a marketplace and subscription commerce startup, which was acquired by EAT Club after reaching over a million meals delivered. Mehra has also been actively investing in early-stage startups over the years as an angel and has backed over 40 companies, including Innovaccer and MoEngage, creating over $5 billion in enterprise value.
Welcoming him to Elevation, Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner, Elevation Capital, said, “Krishna carries an exceptional track record as a founder, operator, and investor. And his values deeply resonate with us – his humility, long-term thinking, hands-on and empathetic approach to working with founders, and missionary zeal to help them succeed, align perfectly with our philosophy at Elevation. We are extremely bullish on Indian founders building category-defining AI companies for the world, and with Krishna leading our presence in Silicon Valley, we are better positioned than ever to help founders realize this opportunity.”
Talking about his new role, Krishna Mehra, Partner, Elevation Capital, said, “India’s SaaS ecosystem has matured, producing global success stories across categories. Indian talent now leads the AI revolution, building transformative products worldwide. Armed with playbooks, the hunger to succeed, and strong support systems, founders are ready to seize the AI era. Over 40% of Silicon Valley companies have Indian diaspora founders, showcasing India’s unique positioning. With world-class talent, a proven track record, and the AI platform shift leveling the field, I’m thrilled to join Elevation at this pivotal moment to help SaaS+AI founders build category-defining global leaders.”
Over the past 15 years, Elevation Capital has consistently partnered with some of the most innovative and driven founders in India, helping them transform their visionary ideas into globally impactful companies.
Elevation to date has partnered with nearly 30 companies in this domain, with an accelerated pace in the last four years. The firm has consistently backed high-potential SaaS and AI companies including Clear, Fareye, Zeni, Everstage, Sprinto, Nanonets, Murf.ai, SuperOps, Tracxn, UnifyApps, etc.
In line with its commitment to accelerating the growth of Indian SaaS companies, Elevation Capital launched SaaS Compass about a year ago. The program offers founders with the resources, mentorship, and strategic insights needed to build category-defining global SaaS companies.
SaaS Compass brings together a distinguished group of industry leaders, including Vikram Bhaskaran,VP and Growth Marketing, ThoughtSpot; Arundhati Balachandran, Global head of Sales and Customer Success, Wati; Manish Jindal, Head of Revenue, DevRev; Neej Parikh, Co-founder & CEO, Exordiom; Madhukar Kumar, CMO, Singlestore; Scott Pugh, VP sales and GM APAC, Figma among others to provide actionable guidance on critical aspects such as marketing strategies, building effective product-led growth motions, and scaling sales teams.
