New Silk Route

New Silk Route partners

Type	Private
Industry	Private Equity
Predecessor	Taj Capital
Founded	2006[1]
Founder	Rajat Gupta Parag Saxena Victor Menezes
Headquarters	New York, United States Mumbai, India Bengaluru, India Dubai, United Arab Emirates[2]
Key people	Parag Saxena (CEO) Victor Menezes
Products	Private equity, Growth capital
AUM	$1.4 billion
Website	www.nsrpartners.com

New Silk Route ("NSR" or New Silk Route Partners LLC) is a $1.4-billion private equity firm that invests in private companies in India, Asia, and the Middle East.^[3]

History

New Silk Route was initially named Taj Capital. Its founding team included, at various points (alphabetically):^{[4] [5]}

• Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, 20th finance minister of Pakistan
• Anil Kumar, former senior partner at McKinsey & Company
• Mark Schwartz, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia and CEO of Soros Fund Management
• Parag Saxena, former managing partner of Invesco Capital and Vedanta Capital
• Raj Rajaratnam, former managing partner of the Galleon Group
• Rajat Gupta, former managing partner at McKinsey & Company
• Victor Menezes, former vice chairman of Citigroup

Messrs. Kumar, Rajaratnam, and Schwartz resigned as founding partners before the firm began operation.

Messrs. Gupta, Kumar, Menezes, Rajaratnam, and Saxena have all, at various points, been target of or found guilty in U.S. criminal or civil law enforcement investigations.

The firm enjoyed close relationships with both Goldman Sachs and the Galleon Group: "A month before joining Goldman’s board, Rajat Gupta began marketing a $2 billion hybrid private-equity and hedge fund vehicle called Taj Capital Partners with one of Goldman’s biggest hedge fund clients, Raj Rajaratnam."^[6] According to Fortune, "New Silk Route's original fundraising was for $2 billion (under the name Taj Capital) -- and [...] the first $600 million or so went into Galleon hedge funds."^[7]

Leadership Team

• Anand Dorairaj, Partner
• Darius Pandole, Partner
• Jacob Kurian, Partner
• Jens Yahya Zimmerman, Partner
• Parag Saxena, CEO & Founding General Partner
• Sanjeev Chachondia, Operating Partner
• Vivek Sett, Partner

Senior Operating Partners

The fund formed a strategic advisory board in January 2012 comprising:^[8]

• Dr. Herbert Henzler, former Senior Partner and Chairman of Europe at McKinsey & Company
• Nina Shapiro, VP Finance at International Finance Corporation
• Supratim Bose, President of Asia-Pacific at Boston Scientific and former Partner at New Silk Route

Investments

In 2010 NSR invested in:

• Café Coffee Day^[9]
• Nectar Lifesciences^[10]
• Amonix^[11]

In 2008 NSR invested in:

• Augere^[12]
• Beaconhouse School System^[13]
• Destimoney^[14]
• Orissa Television Communications^[15]

In 2007 NSR invested in:

• Reliance Telecom Infrastructure^[16]
• Ascend Telecom^[17]

References

1. Leading Asia-focused growth capital firm | NSR. Nsrpartners.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
2. Offices | NSR. Nsrpartners.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
3. ‘The question is how much venture capital India can absorb' | Business Line. Thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
4. Scannell, Kara. (2011-03-17) Insider trading trial star witness challenged. FT.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
5. Galleon head, McKinsey ex-chief built ties in '06 - Economic Times. Articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com (2009-10-31). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
6. Goldman Sachs board members do lots of business with the firm’s clients « Dealbreaker: Wall Street Insider – Financial News, Headlines, Commentary and Analysis – Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Banks. Dealbreaker.com (2010-04-16). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
7. Primack, Dan. Alleged inside trader is more than a "consultant" and ex-Goldman director. Fortune. March 1, 2011.
8. New Silk Route Forms Strategic Advisory Board To Help Portfolio Cos. VCCircle (2012-01-09). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
9. NSR invests in Coffee Day Resorts | Business Line. Thehindubusinessline.com (2010-04-20). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
10. "New Silk route invests in Nectar Lifescience", Mosaic Media Ventures Private Limited Copyright 2008 VCCircle.com; via Reuters. March 5, 2010 6:01pm IST. Retrieved 2011-03-10.
11. Woody, Todd. (2010-04-21) A Big Bet on Solar Technology - NYTimes.com. Green.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
12. New broadband service Augere to focus on developing nations. Telecompaper (2009-07-20). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
13. Beaconhouse School System | NSR. Nsrpartners.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
14. Arijit Barman (December 2, 2014). "Private equity group Carlyle set to buy out Destimoney from New Silk Route". The Economic Times.
15. New Silk Route eyes exit in Ortel Communications IPO | Reuters. In.reuters.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
16. https://web.archive.org/20100323072252/http://www.vccircle.com:80/500/content/new-silk-route-to-buy-725-stake-in-telecom-tower-company-aster-infrastructure. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved January 31, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
17. Telecom News Bulletin: New Silk Route's Ascend Telecom, India Telecom Infra Merge. Telecombulletin.blogspot.com (2011-03-02). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.

Further reading

• Balakrishnan, Reghu. New Silk Route tries to come out of Rajat Gupta's shadow. Business Standard. December 13, 2011.
• FT Tilt
• Cafe Coffee Day
• Saxena interview

External links

• NSR official website