MegaDelta Capital

Ruchir is a Founder Partner at MegaDelta Capital, a sub-advisor to Millenna Capital, a Mauritius based investment fund as well as investment manager of MegaDelta Capital Fund II, a SEBI registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund. He has over two decades of experience of which 18+ years are in investment/investment advisory. He serves/has served as a Director on the boards of Freo, IDfy, Intelligence Node, MediSys, Naaptol, ValueFirst and is/was an observer on the boards of Financial Software and Systems and GoQii. Ruchir started his career with Tata Consultancy Services across various positions including corporate M&A where he led TCS’ acquisition of a company in Latin America. He then joined Thomas Weisel International, a technology focussed Investment Banking firm, in their equity research arm covering small and mid-cap technology product companies as a lead analyst in the areas of enterprise security, digital media technologies and telecom software products. He began his investment career with ICICI Venture where he joined as an AVP (associate). At ICICI Venture, he worked with Bala, covering technology, media and telecom as well as emerging sectors like retail, consumer, education and fin-tech. Post ICICI Venture, Ruchir moved to NEA India to help set-up the India advisory practice and assume a much larger and wider responsibility. Ruchir joined NEA India as a Vice President (Senior Associate). His stellar performance led him to be promoted twice to the role of Managing Director at NEA India. Ruchir graduated from Delhi University (Bachelors in Commerce with Honours) in 2000 and IIM-Ahmedabad (Post Graduate Diploma in Management equivalent to an MBA) in 2002. Ruchir loves listening to old Hindi film music, read or watch police procedurals, and still plays chess, squash and volleyball.

Bala C Deshpande is the Founder Partner of MegaDelta Capital. Of her 33 years of experience, Bala has over two decades of investing experience. She started her investing career as Director Investments in ICICI Venture in 2001 and in 2008 she joined NEA at a General Partner level to set upand head their India Practice. Prior to her investing experience, Bala has had deep operating experience with reputed multi-national firms such as ICI, Cadbury’s and BestFoods. She is a Management Graduate from JamnalalBajaj and has a Master’s degree in Economics. ICICI Venture during her time was the Industry leader and Bala was part of the leadership team that consolidated the firm’s position by growing the AUM to more than $2 Bn. She was instrumental in delivering great returns of 3x and 4x across Funds during her tenure. NEA is one of the most reputed VC Funds based in the US and known for its acumen in investing behind world defining Technology with a Capital Under Management of USD 11 bn at the time of her joining. She built a very strong team and practice in India as a global partner. At NEA, she has invested and backed many disruptive companies in the mid-market space. In 2018, NEA gave the India team an opportunity to buy-out the India platform given their shift in geography strategy. Bala leveraged this opportunity to set up an independent practice with the help of 7 global reputed investors. Over the years she has held close to 40 Board positions in companies across a wide spectrum of industries. Her experience as a Board member is also variegated in terms of size and stage from young, high involvement companies to large listed companies. She has played an instrumental role in shaping many innovative businesses and entrepreneurial journeys. These include the first Internet IPO: Naukri.com, first 24-hour news channel : Aaj Tak, first Payment Tech company, several consumer companies such as Shoppers Stopthat redefined the sector etc. She was an Independent Board Member in Info Edge (India) Ltd. for over 16 years. The company has won several awards for exemplary for compliance and corporate governance. She was also an Independent Board Director in SIDBI Venture Capital Limited. Currently, she is an Independent Director in Brainbees Solutions Private Limited (FirstCry.com), eClerxServices Limited and EAAA Real Assets Managers Limited. She is a nominee Board member of deeply disruptive companies like FSS, a payment Tech company, MediSys a new age digital EduTech company, GOQii Inc, a Medtech company among others. With her Board participation these companies have grown exponentially, emerged as category leaders and created immense shareholder value. Thanks to her deep experience, Bala has a clear perspective ofthe pitfalls that businesses in India experience in their pursuit for growth. She has seen business failures and entrepreneurial missteps as well in her journey as an investor over the years. She has assimilated these learnings to form clear strategic perspectives about businesses in India from both aspects of leveraging opportunity and managing risk. She strongly believes that perspective is the best value add that she can bring to the table as an Investor and a Board member. For MegaDelta in the coming years, she is keen to back entrepreneurs who redefine markets and create lasting economic value. She is passionate about Technology and its far-reaching implications on markets, businesses and consumers. She attended the Singularity University course to sharpen her knowledge in this space.