| It's happening all over the industry. Professionals, after working through the corporate ladder for quite some time, are taking a plunge into entrepreneurship. The sector that's witnessing the trend most is the private equity fund management. |
| Recently, a breakaway team from Citigroup and Citigroup Venture Capital International is targetting to raise a $125 million private equity fund. |
| The fund will be managed by Samara Capital Management, and has been put together by Sumeet Narang, Gautam Gode and Radhika Dubash, who have held top positions in Citigroup and Citigroup Venture Capital International. |
| According to sources, the fund will be formed as a company under the laws prevailing in Mauritius, and will have a advisory team based in India. The fund will primarily invest in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India. |
| “The objective is to invest in deals of under $20 million in strong growth potential industries such as financial services, media and telecom, secondary infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, and information technology,” said industry sources. |
| In an another such development, IL&FS Investment Managers has seen two of its veterans — Hetal Gandhi and Muneesh Chawla — leaving the company to start their own PE funds. While Gandhi started Tano Capital, Muneesh Chawla launched Blue River Ventures. |
| Another trend that is fast catching up is management buyouts (MBO). There have been quite a few instances in the India as well as globally, where partners of a specific fund have bought stake from their initial promoters and started fund management on their own. |
Source : Business Standard