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

Mumbai, Feb 15 (PTI) In one of the biggest managementshake-ups in the private investing space in India, fourmembers forming the top management at a venture capital firmSequoia Capital have quit to set up their own enterprise.

"Sumir Chadha, K P Balaraj, S K Jain and SandeepSinghal have resigned to form a firm devoted to public marketinvesting in India," a statement from Sequoia, which has USD1.4-billion dollars in 60 investments in the country, said.

Their exits come at a time when speculation is rifethat private investing in India has lost out to China wherevaluations of firms are lower.

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

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

Chadha and Balaraj founded a firm called WestBridgeCapital Partners in the year 2000 when venture capitalinvesting in the country was at a nascent stage and werejoined by Jain and Singhal in a year''s time.

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

The four are reportedly considering to reviveWestBridge and plan to be up and running with a fund by theend of 2011 to invest in the more profitable privateinvestment in public enterprises (PIPE) deals.

Sequoia, a global firm, invests in venture, growth andlate-stage opportunities and has invested in multiple sectorsinto companies like SKS Microfinance, Idea Cellular, CafeCoffee Day and FirstSource, among others.