New Silk Route Partners LLC (NSR) is an Indian

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

that invests in private companies in India, Asia, and the Middle East.

History

In early 2006, Parag Saxena,

Rajat Gupta Rajat Kumar Gupta (; born ) is an Indian-American business executive who, as CEO, was the first foreign-born managing director of management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company from 1994 to 2003. In 2012, he was convicted of insider trading and ...

, and

Raj Rajaratnam Rajakumaran Rajaratnam (born June 15, 1957) is a Sri Lankan-American former hedge fund manager and founder of the Galleon Group, a New York-based hedge fund management firm. He is also the author of his memoir, '' Uneven Justice: The Plot to S ...

joined Mark Schwartz, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia, to start a blended

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

and

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

company called Taj Capital Partners Asia Fund. By December 2006, plans had changed; the hedge fund was dropped and the firm was renamed New Silk Route, focused on investing in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n companies. By mid 2010 the fund owned stakes in more than 10 Indian companies. Kumar, Rajaratnam, and Schwartz resigned as founding partners before the firm began operation. The firm enjoyed close relationships with both

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

and the

Galleon Group The Galleon Group was one of the largest hedge fund management firms in the world, managing over $7 billion, before closing in October 2009. The firm was the epicenter of a 2009 insider trading scandal which subsequently led to its fall. The fir ...

: "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." 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."Primack, Dan
Alleged inside trader is more than a "consultant" and ex-Goldman director
''Fortune''. March 1, 2011.

Management

* Parag Saxena,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and founding general partner * Sanjeev Chachondia, operating partner * Anand Dorairaj, partner * Jacob Kurian, partner * Jens Yahya Zimmerman, partner * Vivek Sett, partner

Advisory board

The fund formed a strategic advisory board in January 2012 comprising: * Dr. Herbert Henzler, former Senior Partner and Chairman of Europe at

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

* Nina Shapiro, VP Finance at

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

* Supratim Bose, President of Asia-Pacific at

Boston Scientific Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC), headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts and incorporated in Delaware, is an American biotechnology and biomedical engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices used in interventional ...

and former Partner at New Silk Route

Investments

In 2007, it invested in Reliance Telecom Infrastructure and Ascend Telecom. In 2008, it invested in Augere,

Beaconhouse School System The Beaconhouse School System (BSS), established in 1978, is a private, for-profit preparatory school system in Pakistan.Café Coffee Day Café Coffee Day (CCD) is an Indian multinational chain of coffeehouses headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It is a subsidiary of Coffee Day Enterprises Limited. Internationally, CCD is present in Austria, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Nepal and ...

, Nectar Lifesciences, and

Amonix Amonix, Inc. was a solar power system developer based in Seal Beach, California. The company manufactured concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) products designed for installation in sunny and dry climates. CPV products convert sunlight into electrical ...

.Woody, Todd. (2010-04-21
A Big Bet on Solar Technology - NYTimes.com
Green.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18. In 2013 it invested in Moshes Fine Foods. It had large stakes in

9X Media 9X Media is the largest Indian music broadcaster operating 4 music television channels and a Bollywood news portal – www.spotboye.com. The four music channels are 9XM (Latest Bollywood), 9x Jalwa, 9X Jalwa (Evergreen Hindi), 9X Jhakaas (Marat ...

and Ascend Telecom Infrastructure as of 2016. Its other investments at the time included VRL Logistics, Rolex Rings, KS Oils, Varsity Education Management and Vasudev Adiga’s Fast Food.

References

{{Reflist

External links