Under its new chief Vishakha Mulye, ICICI Venture is learning to strike a difficult balance between building an entrepreneurial culture and also tapping ICICI Bank’s vast network of relationships. The fate of the country’s biggest private equity firm could well depend on it
It has been six months since Vishakha Mulye took over as the CEO and managing director at one of India’s largest private equity fund, ICICI Venture. Things have kept her occupied. She is in the middle of raising a new fund. This is a Rs. 2,500-crore fund with an option to add another Rs. 1,500 crore if investor interest is strong. Then she has the task of rebuilding the team that was left weakened by the exit of senior executives like Renuka Ramnath, Shailesh Pathak and Shweta Jalan three months ago; and Bala Deshpande and Aluri Srinivasa last year.
And from all accounts, the parent ICICI Bank agreed to keep around 40 percent of the 20 percent profits and shared the rest with the team. This is pretty much in line with what most bank-sponsored private equity funds charge. To be fair to the bank, institutions gave money to ICICI Venture because of ICICI Bank’s reputation. Those were the days when Renuka Ramnath, Bala Deshpande, Aluri Srinivasa, and Sumit Chandwani were yet to establish their investing track record.
(This story appears in the 23 October, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)