Bala Deshpande

Bio

Bala Deshpande joined NEA in 2008 as Senior Managing Director for New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd based in Mumbai. She is responsible for creating and building India platform for NEA. NEA's investments in India will primarily be in the mid-market growth space with deal sizes ranging above $ 10 million. This would include opportunities driven by emerging secular trends such as growing urbanization, consolidation across various fragmented sectors especially services etc. Prior to this, she was Senior Director of Investments at ICICI Venture where she had been since 2000. At ICICI Venture, she used her operational experience to identify opportunities for investment and to play a strategic role in shaping the future of investee companies. She was a Director in several companies including Pantaloon Retail, Air Deccan, Nagarjuna Construction, Welspun, TechProcess Solutions, Info Edge etc. Her private equity experience has seen the full cycle from nurturing young companies to executing multiple exits including IPO’s, buy-backs, strategic sales, and capital market divestments. Prior to ICICI Venture, Ms. Deshpande worked with leading multi national companies such as Bestfoods, Cadburys, and ICI. She was a part of the Strategic Planning Team at Bestfoods and was also nominated for the Women Leadership Forum held at Bestfoods, New York. Financial Software & Systems Private Ltd, inTarvo, Nova Medical Centers, Vishwa. Ms. Deshpande has a master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from Jamnalal Bajaj, Mumbai.