Chetan Puttagunta
Chetan Puttagunta | |
|---|---|
 Puttagunta in 2025 | |
| Born | May 14, 1986 |
| Alma mater | Stanford University |
| Occupation | venture capitalist |
| Employer | General Partner at Benchmark |
Chetan Puttagunta (born May 14, 1986) is an American venture capital investor and General Partner at Benchmark, a venture capital firm.[1][2]
He was named to Forbes Magazine's 30 under 30 in venture capital in 2015[3] and has been featured on The Forbes Midas List, a ranking of the world's top venture capital investors, for the last seven consecutive years.[4][5]
Early life and education
[edit]Puttagunta was born in Hyderabad, India, to chemist parents who emigrated to the United States. He attended Quince Orchard High School in Maryland.[6] Puttagunta received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2007.[7]
Career
[edit]Following graduation, Puttagunta worked as an investment banker in technology M&A at Houlihan Lokey and with H.I.G. Capital's San Francisco office.[6]
In 2011, he joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare companies.[8][9] His notable investments at NEA include MuleSoft, MongoDB and Elastic, all of which he served on board of.[9][10] In 2017, MongoDB and MuleSoft completed their initial public offerings, and in 2018, Salesforce acquired MuleSoft for approximately $6.5 billion. At the time of the acquisition, (NEA) was the company’s largest shareholder.[9] In July 2018, he joined Benchmark as a General Partner at age 32.[1][11]
Puttagunta currently serves on the boards of Elastic, where he is chairman,[12] Modern Treasury, Legora, Airbyte, LangChain, Starcloud, fomo, Duffel, and others.[13] He previously invested in Cursor (acquired by SpaceX), Manus (acquired by Meta), Acquia (acquired by Vista Equity), and Scout (acquired by Workday).[8][14]
Personal life
[edit]Puttagunta lives in San Francisco, CA. [15]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Roof, Katie (2018-07-09). "Benchmark Poaches Puttagunta from NEA". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ Garfinkle, Allie. "Exclusive: Reducto, AI document parsing startup, raises $24.5 million Series A led by Benchmark". Fortune. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ "Chetan Puttagunta, 28 - 2014-12-13 - 2015 30 Under 30: Venture Capital". Forbes. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ Capital, TrueBridge. "The 2019 Midas Brink List: Meet Venture Capital's Up-And-Comers". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2025-11-19. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ "Forbes 2025 Midas List - The Top Venture Capital Investors Ranked". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2026-02-18. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- 1 2 Rogers, Bruce. "The Coming 'Winter' For Startup Funding Is Really Just Another Name For Accelerated Innovation". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2021-06-12. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ "Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark". slush.org. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- 1 2 "NEA Promotes Makhzoumi and Puttagunta to General Partner". Wall Street Journal. 2016-10-27. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- 1 2 3 Peterson, Becky. "The enterprise tech market is on fire: These 23 venture capitalists are picking the winners and shaping the future of work". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ Bort, Julie (2025-11-06). "Why Benchmark made a rare crypto bet on trading app Fomo, with $17M Series A". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ "Scaling vs. innovation: The AI paradigm shift". CNBC. 2024-12-19. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ Novet, Jordan (2018-10-07). "This tech investor had a killer week thanks to two big open-source deals". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ Loizos, Connie (2025-12-30). "Meta just bought Manus, an AI startup everyone has been talking about". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ "Elastic Board of Directors". www.elastic.co. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
- ↑ "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (with Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark)". Acquired. 2020-01-10. Retrieved 2020-01-10.