VCCircle

Deshpande is believed to be headed to US venture capital fund New Enterprise Associates.

Update: Bala Deshpande, who has just left ICICI Ventures, is set to join US -based venture capital fund New Enterprise Associates or NEA. VC Circle could not reach Bala Deshpande for confirmation.

NEA has its India office in Bangalore. It globally manages assets exceeding $8.5 billion. Its India advisory team comprises of Ben Mathias (Vice President), Jerry Rao and Amit Sharma (both Venture Advisors).

The General Partners looking after India investments are Krishna Kolluri and Mark Perry. NEA's India investments include Sasken, Novatium and ISGN Technologies. NEA also runs an affiliate fund in India called NEA-Indo US Ventures.

(Earlier post below: Sept 09, 2008)

Bala Deshpande, a Senior Director of the private equity team at ICICI Venture, has quit. A spokesperson for ICICI Venture has confirmed the development to VC Circle. However, it's not known where Deshpande is headed to.

Deshpande was with ICICI Ventures since 2000 and has served on the boards of Naukri, Subhiksha, Pantaloon, Nagarjuna Construction, Welspun, TechProcess Solutions, among others. A PE industry veteran in India, Deshpande, has worked with FMCG companies such as Bestfoods, Cadburys and ICI prior to the ICICI Venture stint.

Her focus of investments has been on sectors such as retail, media, IT, ITES and telecom. At ICICI Venture, Deshpande was involved in executing over 10 exits which include Naukri.com and Deccan Aviation. 

Deshpande has a Masters in Economics, Bombay University and Masters in Management Studies, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

Deshpande is the second senior director to leave ICICI Venture in the recent past. Aluri Srinivasa Rao, another senior director who was overseeing healthcare investing at ICICI Venture, quit recently to head up Morgan Stanley's private equity fund in India.