Trinity Ventures Loses Top Dealmaker After Pausing Fundraising During Pandemic

Trinity Ventures, an early-stage VC firm founded in 1986 that took pre–initial public offering stakes in Starbucks and Zulily, is losing a top general partner. The departure is the latest blow to a firm that has already had to halt fundraising efforts on its next fund due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Karan Mehandru, 42, who first joined the firm in 2010, is leaving for New York–based hedge fund Steadfast Capital Management, where he will launch and oversee a VC unit focused mostly on enterprise software investments. Mehandru was responsible for leading investments in many of Trinity's standout portfolio companies, such as Cohesity, which reached a valuation of $2.5 billion earlier this year.

The Menlo Park, Calif.–based Trinity established an early reputation for investing in consumer brands like P.F. Chang’s, and later in cloud-based software companies like ServiceMax. This year, the coronavirus pandemic, and now the loss of Mehandru, have posed challenges for the firm.