Battery Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm, has decided to freeze its plans of setting up an India office. Mark Sherman, a general partner who was heading the India investments, will not be the part of upcoming Fund IX by Battery. Along with him Gautam Patel, a managing director based out of Mumbai, has also decided to quit. The reason for Sherman and Patel's departure is not known.
"Not wanting to operate as the lone employee in Mumbai, Gautam Patel, has chosen to seek other opportunities," said a spokesperson for Battery in an email response. "Silicon Valley-based Ramneek Gupta will lead investments in the country," she added.
But Patel and Sherman will stay with Battery till Q1 next year when the new investment period of the Fund VIII ends. Battery has raised $3 billion of investor commitments since inception in 1983, and raised $750 million for fund VIII in 2008. "We believe in the potential of India as a strategic investment market," added the spokesperson.
This news comes after Battery, along with Sequoia Capital India, exited its investment in online hotels aggregator to Travelocity. Another one of its India portfolio firms, Tejas Networks, recently saw a secondary stake sale in which the name of the seller was not disclosed. Battery spokesperson told VCCircle that the venture capital firm did not sell the stake in that transaction.
Other Battery portfolio firms in India are High Mark Credit Bureau and TechProcess Solutions, a transaction and payment processing services provider.
