Four of Sequoia Capital's top mgmt quit to pursue own venture

MUMBAI: In one of the biggest management shake-ups in the private investing space in India, four members forming the top management at a venture capital firm Sequoia Capital have quit to set up their own enterprise.

"Sumir Chadha, K P Balaraj, S K Jain and Sandeep Singhal have resigned to form a firm devoted to public market investing in India," a statement from Sequoia, which has USD 1.4-billion dollars in 60 investments in the country, said.

Their exits come at a time when speculation is rife that private investing in India has lost out to China where valuations of firms are lower.

Post-the resignations, a new team comprising of Abhay Pandey, G V Ravishankar, Mohit Bhatnagar, Shailendra Singh and V T Bharadwaj have been entrusted with the responsibility of running the firm's business in India, it said.

The officials who have resigned were at Sequoia for five-years and will continue to represent it on the Boards of a variety of private and public investee companies, it said.

Chadha and Balaraj founded a firm called WestBridge Capital Partners in the year 2000 when venture capital investing in the country was at a nascent stage and were joined by Jain and Singhal in a year's time.

For the last five-years, WestBridge had been operating as Sequoia Capital, it said.

The four are reportedly considering to revive WestBridge and plan to be up and running with a fund by the end of 2011 to invest in the more profitable private investment in public enterprises (PIPE) deals.

Sequoia, a global firm, invests in venture, growth and late-stage opportunities and has invested in multiple sectors into companies like SKS Microfinance, Idea Cellular, Cafe Coffee Day and FirstSource, among others.