Henky Prihatna is departing Google after over almost a decade, KrASIA has learned, to join the Singapore-headquartered private equity firm Northstar Group in October. It’s not yet clear what title he’ll hold at Northstar.
Prihatna’s most recent title at Google Indonesia was “country head, Next Billion Users” after various designations, including country representative and country industry head. He had started his career with Google as regional community manager for APAC, before Google had an office in Indonesia.
Among Northstar’s notable investments are Indonesian mobility and on-demand services unicorn Gojek as well as Vietnam’s leading etdech firm Topica. The firm claims to have USD 2 billion in committed equity capital, which it plans to invest in growth companies in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.
Prihanta’s move mirrors that of the former Google India head Rajan Anandan, who made his move into the VC/PE world by joining Sequoia Capital India a few months ago. Anandan had been with Google for eight years, according to The Times of India. At Sequoia, he took charge of the VC’s accelerator program Surge, which targets early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia.