Rajeev Thakore has quit private equity fund Baer Capital where he was a Managing Director based in Delhi. Thakore has joined the US-based private equity fund Strategic Value Partners (SVP) as a managing director. He will based in Delhi. SVP, which invests out of its global fund, set up shop in India last year.
The fund is headed by Ajay Khosla who is the President & CEO. The other managing director in Delhi office is Ranjan Bakshi, who is in charge of deal origination. SVP is focused on power sector in India. The firm has $6 billion under management globally.
Baer Capital’s Beacon India Fund is headed by Deepak Shahdadpuri, based out of Mumbai
The other key move is that of Rajan Mehra (pictured), former country manager of eBay India, who has joined Clearstone Venture Partners. Mehra has been appointed as a Venture Partner in the Mumbai office of the US fund, which has invested in companies like PayPal.
Clearstone already has Rahul Khanna as a director based in Mumbai, while Sumant Mandal is a General Partner based out of Silicon Valley. Clearstone also had appointed Shailesh Mehta, a veteran manager, as a venture partner who will be based in India and the US.
Mehra is the fourth VC from eBay India. Avneesh Bajaj, former founder of Baazee.com (was acquired by eBay) and currently eBay India chairman, was the first to become a VC from the online auction company as he co-founded Matrix Partners India in 2006.
Suveer Sujan, Bajaj’s colleague and the other co-founder, followed him by co-founding Nexus India Capital, a $100 million fund, in partnership with entrepreneur Naren Gupta and Sandeep Singhal. Niren Shah is another ex-Bazee and eBay man to move to venture capital as he was appointed as the India based managing director of Norwest Venture Partners. eBay is turning out to be favourite VC hunting ground.
