BUY-SIDE ADVISORY | PRIVATE AND PUBLIC MARKETS
Executive search · India
Retained Executive Search Firm for PE, VC, Hedge Funds & Family Offices in India
For appointments an investment committee or a board will have to stand behind.
Written by Gaurav Shah, Managing Partner. Updated November 2026.
Arete Ventures is a retained executive search firm in India for private equity and venture capital firms, hedge funds, Category I, II and III AIFs, family offices, and the companies they back. Mandates usually come from a managing partner, a CIO, a CHRO or a board chair. Each one is run from the first brief to the start date by our managing partner, Gaurav Shah.
Gaurav is an investor and an operator before he is a search partner. He sits on the investment committees of private equity and venture capital funds in India and the US. He has also built and run businesses as an operating partner.
IC member
At PE and VC funds in India and the US
MCA qualified
Independent director, Ministry of Corporate Affairs
About 85%
Of placements still in the role after two years
Zero
Replacements claimed under our 12-month warranty
The difference
What Changes When an Investor Runs Your Search
Most search partners have spent their careers in search. The person running yours has spent his on the decisions your new leader will be judged by.
01
The assessment reads like an investment memo.
Gaurav writes up a shortlisted executive the way he would write up a deal for a committee: the case for the hire, the risks, and the questions the record leaves open. Your committee or board debates the points that matter, and the decision holds up when someone asks about it a year later.
02
Operating claims are tested by someone who has operated.
A COO can describe a turnaround well in an interview. Gaurav has run plants and portfolio companies himself, so he asks where the cash was stuck, what the person cut in the first ninety days and what they would undo. Rehearsed answers do not survive those questions.
03
Investment records are read by someone who manages capital.
He votes on deals and trades Indian derivatives with his own money. He can tell a manager's skill from a rising market or borrowed money, and he knows which parts of a track record will travel to your fund.
04
Board appointments are handled by a qualified independent director.
Eligibility, committee process and the conversation with the director all happen between peers. Boards hear the risks in a director appointment from someone who carries the same duties.
Recent work
Recent Mandates in India
Names of clients and the people placed are never disclosed.
At funds
Buy-side fund managers at hedge funds. Partners and director-level investment roles at funds, including Category II AIFs.
At companies
Chief operating officers at venture-backed companies in FMCG, e-commerce and fintech, and senior leadership at a corporate-owned payments company.
After the appointment
Why Senior Hires Fail at Funds and Family Offices
We sit on investment committees, so we see what happens after the appointment. The failures repeat, and most of them were visible before the offer.
01
The track record belonged to the platform.
A fund manager's returns came from a team, a risk budget, a research desk and a mandate. Only part of it moves with the person. We separate the decisions the person made from what the platform gave them: position sizing in a drawdown, what they cut and when, and how the book behaved when the market turned against it.
02
The mandate was never settled.
Family office CIOs and company COOs often leave within two years for the same reason. Nobody agreed who decides what before the search began. We settle decision rights, reporting lines and the measure of success with the principal or the board first. If they cannot be settled, we say so before the search starts.
03
The offer ignored what the person leaves behind.
Senior pay in Indian asset management carries deferred and locked components. Part of a mutual fund manager's pay is held in units of the schemes they manage and stays locked for three years under SEBI rules. Unvested ESOPs and carry at the current firm do the same work. An offer built on fixed CTC alone tends to fail at the last stage, after months of work on both sides.
04
The references came from the wrong people.
A former manager's reference tells you how the person behaved upward. We speak with people who sat across the table: co-members of an investment committee, co-investors, lenders and directors who saw the person under pressure.
Private equity
Private Equity Executive Search in India
Much of private equity in India is a minority stake in a promoter-led company. A COO or CFO hired after the investment answers to a promoter who still controls the business, while the sponsor watches the monthly numbers and holds the exit rights. People who have only worked inside a sponsor-controlled company often struggle here. We look for leaders who have kept a promoter and an investor aligned through a bad quarter.
Funds comparing private equity search firms usually need two things at once: someone who can judge an investment professional's deal record, and someone who understands how a portfolio company is actually run. At the fund level, we search for partners and director-level investment professionals at private equity firms and Category II AIFs, including private credit and real estate funds.
Venture capital
Venture Capital Executive Search in India
A venture-backed company changes its leadership needs at every round. The COO who built the operation at Series A is often the wrong person to run it once the board asks for unit economics and a path to profit. We hire for the stage the company has to reach next, and we test whether the person has run a business at that scale before.
In FMCG and e-commerce, a growing share of sales now runs through quick-commerce platforms that hold stock in dark stores. A COO has to manage inventory, fill rates and platform margins the brand does not fully control.
In fintech, the leadership team carries the company's relationship with the Reserve Bank of India, and a payment aggregator authorisation or a lending partnership depends on people who have been through RBI inspections. Our recent COO mandates came from venture-backed companies in all three sectors.
We also work with venture capital funds, most of them registered as Category I AIFs, on partner and director-level hires. The question there is whether a track record built at one fund will repeat at another.
Hedge funds and AIFs
Hedge Fund Executive Search in India
Systematic, HFT, MFT and AIF Category III
In systematic and high-frequency trading, the claim to test is whether the strategy made money live, at size, after costs. A backtest shows what a model would have done. We look at live returns, capacity, how quickly the edge decayed, and who owned the research and the infrastructure. Gaurav trades Indian equity derivatives himself, so these conversations happen at the level of the strategy.
A Category III AIF also has to meet SEBI's certification rule for its key investment team. If the person leaving is the one who held the NISM certification, the fund has a compliance gap until the replacement is certified. We check this at the start of every hedge fund executive search.
Public, Private and Multi-Asset Investing Leadership
SEBI's Specialised Investment Fund category has sent asset managers looking for long-short managers with records they can verify. Category III funds, family offices and multi-asset platforms are hiring from the same small pool. In a market this thin, we assess each manager on attribution, risk taken per unit of return, and behaviour in the worst drawdown. A good year in a rising market is the start of that check.
Family offices
Family Office Executive Search in India
Indian family offices are hiring CIOs, heads of direct investment and CFOs as their portfolios move from bank deposits and promoter holdings into funds, direct deals and listed equity. When the hire fails, the cause is usually structure. The family has not decided whether it wants an allocator or a deal-maker, who signs off on investments, or how to pay for performance without carried interest.
We settle those questions with the principal before the search begins. For families setting up a family investment fund in GIFT City, the search also covers the people who can run an IFSCA-registered structure.
Featured in The Economic Times
Gaurav Shah was quoted in The Economic Times (August 2026) on why India's family offices struggle to hire and keep investment chiefs.
Boards
Board Member and Independent Director Search in India
Independent director searches in India usually stall on eligibility, after the board has already picked its preferred name. A person who was a key managerial person or employee of the company, its holding company or a subsidiary in the previous three financial years cannot be independent. A director already sitting as an independent director on seven listed boards cannot take an eighth. We clear both before any name reaches the nomination and remuneration committee. Gaurav is qualified as an independent director himself, so he stays in the conversation as a peer until the appointment is approved.
Independent Directors for Pre-IPO Companies
A company preparing to list usually has to appoint several independent directors at once, and the draft offer document discloses each of them. When it applies to the stock exchanges for in-principle approval, it has to confirm that its board and committees already meet SEBI's listing rules. Two-thirds of the audit committee must be independent, every member financially literate and at least one with accounting or financial management expertise. Investors and SEBI read that board closely. Directors appointed a few weeks before filing have no time to understand the business, and it shows in the offer process. We start the search early enough for the board to sit together before the filing.
Independent Directors for Listed Companies
For a listed company, the nomination and remuneration committee has to write down the skills and capabilities each role needs, and shareholders must approve the appointment by special resolution. A vacancy has to be filled within three months, and each director must be registered in the IICA databank. Many board search firms send a shortlist and step back at this stage. We stay until the resolution passes.
Companies
C-Suite Search for Investor-Backed and Listed Companies
Our core work is for funds, family offices and boards. We also run C-suite searches for the companies they own and for listed companies, in sectors where Gaurav has invested or operated: engineering and manufacturing, fintech, AI, blockchain and energy transition.
In these sectors the hard part of the assessment is technical. A chemical engineer with six US patents who has built and run industrial plants can test a CTO's architecture claims or a COO's plant numbers directly. Most search partners have to take them on trust.
Choosing a firm
How to Choose a Retained Executive Search Partner in India
Three questions decide most of it. Ask them of every firm you speak to, including us.
01
Who runs the search after the pitch?
At many firms, a senior partner wins the mandate and a research team runs it. Ask who will speak to the shortlist and who will sit with you when the final two are compared. At Arete, the answer to both is Gaurav.
02
Can the firm judge the work itself?
A search consultant can confirm a fund manager's returns or a COO's revenue growth. Fewer can tell you whether the returns came from skill, borrowed money or a rising market, or whether the growth made money. Ask what the firm will test beyond the interview.
03
Whose off-limits list narrows your market?
Large firms cannot approach executives at their other clients. In India's small pool of fund managers, CIOs and fund COOs, that can remove the best names before your search begins. We have not agreed off-limits restrictions with our clients, so the whole market is open to your search.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is different about a retained executive search firm run by an investor?
The person running the search has sat where the client sits. Gaurav Shah sits on the investment committees of PE and VC funds, and has run businesses as an operating partner. He assesses executives against the decisions they will be judged by, and writes up each one the way a committee memo is written.
How long does a retained executive search take in India?
Most senior mandates close in three to six months, from the first brief to the start date. Notice periods for senior roles in India often run three months, and they account for much of that time. Searches move faster when decision rights and the approval process are agreed before the search begins.
How do you assess a hedge fund or AIF fund manager's track record?
We separate what the manager decided from what the platform provided. That means attribution of returns, risk taken per unit of return, position sizing in drawdowns, and live results against any backtest. We also check whether the fund depends on the manager for SEBI's key investment team certification.
Do you search for private equity and venture capital firms or for their portfolio companies?
Both. At funds, we search for partners, director-level investment professionals and buy-side fund managers. At companies, our recent mandates have been for chief operating officers at venture-backed businesses in FMCG, e-commerce and fintech.
What should a family office settle before hiring a CIO?
Who approves investments, whether the role is an allocator or a deal-maker, and how performance will be paid for without carried interest. Most family office CIO hires in India that fail, fail on these points. We settle them with the principal before the search begins.
What does it take to appoint an independent director at a listed company in India?
The person must meet the independence test, including no role as a key managerial person or employee of the group in the previous three financial years. They must be registered in the IICA databank and hold no more than seven listed independent directorships. The nomination and remuneration committee sets out the skills required, and shareholders approve the appointment by special resolution.
What independent directors does a company need before an IPO in India?
By the time it applies to the stock exchanges for in-principle approval, the company must confirm that its board and committees meet SEBI's listing rules, and the draft offer document discloses every director. That usually means several independent directors at once. Two-thirds of the audit committee must be independent, and at least one member needs accounting or financial management expertise. Appointing them early gives the board time to work together before the filing.
What happens if a placement does not work out?
Every placement carries a 12-month replacement warranty, subject to standard conditions. No placement has needed a replacement so far, and about 85% were still in the role after two years.
Next step
A Question Worth Asking First
Ask any search firm who will be in the room when your shortlist is discussed, and whether that person has ever voted on the decision the hire will be judged by.
We take a small number of mandates at a time. If a mandate is not ready for search, we will tell you on the first call.