Sridhar Narayan

Sridhar Narayan is a Founding Partner of GEF Capital Partners and co-head of the firm's South Asia investment practice, based in Mumbai. He has over 23 years of experience investing across Indian public and private markets. He joined the Global Environment Fund (GEF) as a Managing Director in 2012, and in 2018 helped spin the South Asia franchise out into GEF Capital Partners, an independent growth-equity manager headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. At Global Environment Fund he was responsible for the South Asia investment program and led investments in renewable energy and energy-efficiency businesses.

Before GEF, Narayan worked at JRE Partners in Mumbai, where he led minority and growth-capital investments across a range of fast-growing Indian sectors. Earlier he served as Vice President of Direct Investments (India) for American International Group (AIG), managing proprietary and third-party private equity capital, and before that ran fixed income as Head of Fixed Income at Zurich Asset Management India / ITC Threadneedle AMC India, handling portfolio management and trading.

He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B).

Narayan is an active board-level investor. He has served on the boards of ReNew Power and Shakti Pumps, was engaged in managing and exiting an investment in Greenko, and currently holds directorships tied to GEF's clean-mobility portfolio — including roles associated with Electrodrive Powertrain Solutions, Hero Motors, and TI Clean Mobility — as well as a nominee directorship at SeedWorks International.

• Invests in middle-market, growth-stage operating businesses in South Asia where capital can support revenue and earnings growth while "catalyzing positive environmental and social impact" (GEF Capital's stated mandate).
• Core themes: climate mitigation and adaptation, clean energy, energy efficiency, clean mobility, water/wastewater treatment, circular economy, and resource efficiency.
• Typical checks in the tens of millions of dollars (e.g., ~$27M in Premier Energies; ~$50M commitment to Membrane Group), deployed from the South Asia Growth Fund II (~$193M, 2018) and Fund III (~$440M, 2023–24).
• Prefers to take board seats and play an active governance/value-creation role, then drive to an exit (as he did with Greenko and ReNew Power).
• Says yes to businesses with real revenue/earnings trajectories and demonstrable environmental outcomes — this is an impact-and-returns mandate, not a technology-bet seed strategy.