Piyush Puri, founding partner at Mercurius Media Capital, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Based in the US since 2016, Piyush Puri is responsible for investments and sales at the Times of India Group in North America and is also one of the founding partners of Mercurius Media Capital (MMC).
Independent media-for-equity fund MMC was created in response to a gap identified by Puri and the team at Brand Capital International – the strategic investment arm of the Times Group – in the largely untapped media-for-equity investment landscape.
“At MMC, we aggregate media assets from US-based media houses and strategically invest them into high-growth startups, compounding the value of these publishers’ media assets. We operate as the fund’s general partners, while the media companies participate as limited partners,” says Puri.
Established in 2023, MMC has a fund size of $132.5m. About $20m of this capital has been invested so far in companies including Storybook, a bedtime-story app for children; Ryse, a manufacturer of automated window coverings; and Airtasker, a marketplace for outsourcing everyday tasks and services.
“Liquidity is a key priority for us, so we actively invest in growth-stage companies that have a clear line of sight to an IPO or acquisition.”
“We are size-agnostic,” says Puri. “Liquidity is a key priority for us, so we actively invest in growth-stage companies that have a clear line of sight to an IPO or acquisition. We also allocate about 20% of our capital to public companies that offer strong potential for liquidity within two to four years. That said, we diversify across early, mid and public stages to balance long-term upside with shorter-term exits.”
Puri acknowledges that economic uncertainty is likely to impact many consumer-facing brands – particularly direct-to-consumer companies with supply chains rooted in China or other parts of Asia. But Puri does not believe this will influence how MMC operates.
“At our core, we are a media organisation focused on doing meaningful work that supports both the VC ecosystem and our advertising partners in the US. In a shifting economic environment, we are becoming more cost conscious and disciplined about cashflows – those fundamentals matter more than ever. But we are not pursuing efficiency at the expense of growth. Striking the right balance is key.”
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
