Bala Deshpande is the Senior Managing Director of the

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm,

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...

(

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) since 2008. NEA is a venture capital firm with over US$13 billion in committed capital. NEA started direct investments in India during the downturn in 2008 and has since built a portfolio of 14 companies. According to Fortune India (2016), she is the 49th most powerful women in

Education and personal life

She has completed her post-graduation in Economics from the

University of Mumbai University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

. She also holds a master's degree in Management Studies from the

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (commonly referred to as JBIMS) is the Department of Management Studies of the University of Mumbai, situated in Churchgate, Mumbai. The institute is named after noted industrialist and freedom f ...

. She is married to Chaitanya Deshpande, who heads the

Investor Relations Investor relations (IR) is a "strategic management responsibility that is capable of integrating finance, communication, marketing and securities law Regulatory compliance, compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a com ...

and M&A functions at Marico Limited. The couple lives in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Career

She has over 23 years of professional experience, including 14 years of private equity experience. Her private equity experience has seen the full cycle from nurturing young companies to executing multiple exits, including IPO's, buybacks, strategic sales, and capital market divestments. Under her leadership, NEA India's

assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...

(AUM) have grown from ~$100mn to over ~$350mn. Bala's investment expertise includes sectors such as retail, media, IT&ITES, telecom, construction as also some manufacturing related industries. Prior to joining the board of NEA (India), Bala was the Director of Investments at ICICI Ventures since 2000. At ICICI Venture, she used her operational experience to identify opportunities for investment and to play a strategic role in shaping the future of investee companies. She led teams in deals ranging from Rs 6

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

to Rs 300 crore at ICICI Venture. She launched leading e-commerce ventures like Traveljini and BillJunction. Further, she was involved in executing over 10 exits during her tenure with ICICI Ventures. Before ICICI Ventures, Bala had multi industry exposure and has worked across diverse functions such as sales, distribution and brand management with MNCs such as Bestfoods, Cadbury and ICI. At Bestfoods, she was also part of the strategic planning team.

Recognition

Bala has been nominated among India's top 50 most powerful women in business by Forbes consecutively in 2011, and 2012. She was also nominated for the Women Leadership Forum held at Bestfoods, New York.

Directorship

Bala is associated with several leading organization in the capacity of a Director. She is currently on the board of: * Air Works India Engineering Private Ltd * Naaptol Online Shopping Pvt Ltd * Financial Software & Systems Private Ltd. * IndiaHomes * inTarvo Technologies Ltd. * VISHWA Infrastructures & Services Pvt. Ltd * Future Retail Limited (formerly, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd) * Nova Medical Centers Private Ltd * Naukri Internet Services Pvt. Ltd *

Info Edge Info Edge is an Indian technology holding company which owns, operates and invests in internet-led businesses. The company's offerings include the flagship employment website Naukri.com, matrimonial website Jeevansathi.com, real estate class ...

(India) Ltd

References

External links

Bala Deshpande
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deshpande, Bala Living people Indian women chief executives Indian chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) University of Mumbai alumni