New Silk Route

History

In early 2006, Parag Saxena, Rajat Gupta, and Raj Rajaratnam joined Mark Schwartz, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia, to start a blended hedge fund and private equity 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 Asian 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 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." 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."

Management

• Parag Saxena, CEO 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
• 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 2007, it invested in Reliance Telecom Infrastructure and Ascend Telecom. In 2008, it invested in Augere, Beaconhouse School System, Destimoney, and Orissa Television Communications. In 2010 NSR invested in Café Coffee Day, Nectar Lifesciences, and Amonix.

In 2013 it invested in Moshes Fine Foods. It had large stakes in 9X Media 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

References

1. [http://nsrpartners.com/content/profile Leading Asia-focused growth capital firm. NSR]. Nsrpartners.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
2. [http://nsrpartners.com/content/offices Offices. NSR]. Nsrpartners.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
3. [http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/investment-world/article2704374.ece ‘The question is how much venture capital India can absorb'. Business Line]. Thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
4. (May 6, 2010). "Goldman Sachs’s Gupta Did Business With Rajaratnam". [[Bloomberg News]].
5. [http://dealbreaker.com/tag/goldman-sachs-board-members-do-lots-of-business-with-the-firms-clients/ 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.
6. Primack, Dan. [http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/01/alleged-inside-trader-is-more-than-a-consultant-and-ex-goldman-director/ Alleged inside trader is more than a "consultant" and ex-Goldman director]. ''Fortune''. March 1, 2011.
7. [http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/new-silk-route-forms-strategic-advisory-board-to-help-portfolio-cos New Silk Route Forms Strategic Advisory Board To Help Portfolio Cos]. VCCircle (2012-01-09). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
8. "New Silk Route to Buy 72.5% Stake in Telecom Tower Company Aster Infrastructure | VCCircle".
9. [https://telecombulletin.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-silk-routes-ascend-telecom-india.html Telecom News Bulletin: New Silk Route's Ascend Telecom, India Telecom Infra Merge]. Telecombulletin.blogspot.com (2011-03-02). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
10. [http://www.telecompaper.com/news/new-broadband-service-augere-to-focus-on-developing-nations New broadband service Augere to focus on developing nations]. Telecompaper (2009-07-20). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
11. [http://nsrpartners.com/content/beaconhouse-school-system Beaconhouse School System. NSR]. Nsrpartners.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
12. Arijit Barman. (December 2, 2014). "Private equity group Carlyle set to buy out Destimoney from New Silk Route". [[The Economic Times]].
13. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160202034021/http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-55777420110322 New Silk Route eyes exit in Ortel Communications IPO. Reuters]. In.reuters.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
14. [http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-corporate/article989518.ece NSR invests in Coffee Day Resorts. Business Line]. Thehindubusinessline.com (2010-04-20). Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160202034021/http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-46686420100305 "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.
16. Woody, Todd. (2010-04-21) [http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/investors-bet-big-on-concentrating-solar-technology/ A Big Bet on Solar Technology - NYTimes.com]. Green.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.
17. Balakrishnan, Reghu. (15 March 2016). "New chapter for Rajat Gupta, but fund he founded still struggles". Livemint.