Mukul Chawla joins KKR as Head of Growth Equity in Asia Pacific

By Leandra Monteiro

Global investment firm KKR announced the appointment of Mukul Chawla as Partner and Head of Growth Equity in Asia Pacific. In the newly created role, he will lead and accelerate KKR’s regional investment strategy into emerging, high-growth companies in sectors such as technology, health care, fintech, consumer, and other growth categories. Chawla’s appointment is effective as of December 9, 2021, and he will be based in Asia while also spending considerable time in KKR’s global offices, including Menlo Park.

Chawla joins KKR from Temasek, where he was Managing Director, Joint Head of Global Telecom, Media & Technology, Joint-Head of North America, and a member of their investment and management committees. After joining Temasek in 2010, he helped to build their Telecom, Media & Technology and North America franchises based in New York and San Francisco. Chawla sponsored 39 technology buyout and growth investments including Airbnb, Xiaomi, Doordash, Roblox, Virtu Financial and served on 11 boards including GHX, Creative Artists Agency, WebMD.

Ming Lu, Partner and Head of KKR Asia said, “We are seeing more homegrown innovation and startups originating in Asia than ever before, and the ideas that these companies and entrepreneurs introduce to our global economy have the potential to transform our daily lives and entire industries. Because of this, Asian growth equity is becoming an increasingly important part of the region’s broader investment landscape. As we continue to pursue these attractive investment opportunities, we are excited to welcome an experienced global growth equity investor of Mukul’s caliber to the KKR team. We want to leverage his leadership experience, proven track record, and deep relationships across the region and globally to provide a truly differentiated approach to emerging Asian businesses and help them to achieve their growth aspirations at this exciting time.”

Concurrent with Chawla’s appointment, KKR announced that Lucian Schönefelder, Partner and Head of Technology investing at KKR Asia, is transitioning to the role of KKR Advisor. Schönefelder has been at KKR since 2007, and prior to his move to Asia, he was a Partner in KKR’s London office focused on both growth equity and private equity technology investments across Europe and Israel. As a KKR Advisor, Mr. Schönefelder will support KKR’s Asia Pacific next generation technology investment strategy and will advise KKR’s portfolio companies.

“We are grateful to Lucian for his role in building and advancing KKR’s private equity technology and next generation technology strategies in both Asia and Europe,” said Lu. “He has been a valued member of our team, and we are pleased that Lucian will remain within the KKR family as a KKR Advisor. His insights on next generation technology trends will continue to be a great resource to our team and as KKR accelerates its growth equity technology strategy across the region.”