Sohil Chand joins NVP India as MD

BANGALORE, INDIA: Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a global technology venture capital firm has announced that Sohil Chand has joined NVP India as Managing Director. Sohil brings to NVP India more than 10 years of financial, investment banking and private equity investment experience from leading global financial institutions.  Sohil will be based in NVP India’s Mumbai office, and will focus on making growth equity investments in Indian companies across a wide range of sectors, including telecom, technology, financial services, infrastructure and manufacturing.

Prior to joining NVP, Sohil was an Executive Director in Goldman Sachs' Asian Special Situations Group, a balance sheet investing group with over $4 billion under management.  Sohil was the first executive recruited for the group's India business in 2006, and became part of a five-member team in Mumbai tasked with building and running the India business. In this role, Sohil was involved in making over $300 million of private equity and PIPE investments in India.

“Sohil’s deep private equity experience, solid financial background and strong network of relationships globally will be of great value to NVP India,” said Promod Haque, managing partner, NVP.  “Despite the challenging global economic climate, the Indian market continues to show great potential. The fundamentals of the Indian economy are still strong and we believe that those companies with sound business models will return profits when the economic climate recovers. India remains a world class technology center and we believe that now is the time to expand our team and investment focus in the region. NVP India will continue to invest in early and mid stage companies, and with the help of Sohil, we will now capitalize on the tremendous opportunities we’re seeing in growth equity in India.  We look forward to working with Sohil as we invest more broadly and expand NVP India.”

Today’s announcement reinforces NVP’s commitment to India, as the firm expands its focus to include growth equity investments. NVP India has already made direct investments in such early and mid-stage companies as Adventity, Persistent Systems, Sulekha.com, Suvidhaa, Yatra, and more companies that will be announced in the months to come. With the addition of Sohil Chand, NVP India is now evaluating growth equity investment opportunities across multiple sectors in India.

“NVP takes a long term view when investing. The firm has a 47-year track record and has been through multiple up and down cycles of the economy,” commented Sohil. “NVP also knows how to be opportunistic during challenging economic times. We are currently seeing a number of interesting opportunities to invest in strong companies which are currently undervalued in today’s markets based on their underlying fundamentals. I look forward to working with the NVP India team to explore exciting growth capital investments more closely in the coming year, and help fund the next generation of winning companies in India.”

Prior to his role in the Private Equity Group at Goldman Sachs, Sohil was an Executive Director in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where he gained extensive transaction experience in a range of industries, and advised both corporate and private equity funds on major acquisitions. Significant transactions included advising on the creation of TNK-BP, the first and only Western / Russian joint venture in the Russian oil industry, valued at over $18 billion at the time of the transaction, and advising Thames Water, a UK water utility, on the divestiture of its international assets valued at over $2 billion.

Earlier in his career, Sohil served as a Consultant in the Tax, Regulatory & Business Advisory Group at Arthur Andersen in India.

Sohil obtained his Masters in Business Administration with High Honors from the University of Chicago. He also holds a Master of Science in International Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Sohil is a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.