Rob S Chandra

Bio

Rob Chandra, a partner in Bessemer's Menlo Park, Calif. office, joined the firm in 2000. His current focus is India and clean-technology investments. Rob is the founding partner of the firm's practice in India and has led several investments there. They include solar company Applied Solar Technologies; transport-infrastructure company IL&FS Transportation Networks; financial-services company Motilal Oswal Financial Services; telecommunications provider OnMobile; renewable-energy company Orient Green Power; consumer-loan provider Shriram City Union Finance; clean-energy company Shriram EPC; and real-estate developer Anant Raj. In the U.S., Rob led the firm’s investments in Avnera, Berkeley Design, Summit Design and Tilera. Rob also led Bessemer's first clean-tech investments in Miasole and Exclara. Since entering the venture-capital industry in 1996, Rob has been involved with 24 early-stage investments that have gone public or been acquired by public companies. Seven of his portfolio companies went public between 2007 and 2010. His investment experience and exits cover a broad range of industries and geographies. In India, his investment exits are Shriram EPC (IPO), Motilal Oswal (IPO), IL&FS Transportation (IPO), Orient Green Power, and OnMobile (IPO). Prior to starting the firm’s India practice, Rob invested in semiconductor companies such as Mellanox Technologies (IPO), PA Semi (acquired by Apple Computer) and Mobilian (acquired by Intel). Earlier in his career, Rob invested in Internet companies such as BuyerZone.com (acquired by Reed Elsevier), Direct Hit (acquired by Ask Jeeves), SmarterKids.com (IPO), Mothernature.com (IPO) and Centra (IPO). He was then involved with several communications-industry investments such as Altiga (acquired by Cisco), Catena (acquired by Ciena), NBX (acquired by 3Com) and Wavesmith Networks (acquired by Ciena). He also has been involved with healthcare-services investments such as American Hearing Centers (acquired by HearUSA) and IPC – The Hospitalist Company, which went public in January 2008 and was the best-performing IPO of that year. Prior to joining Bessemer, Rob was a general partner with Commonwealth Capital Ventures. Before that, he worked in consulting, most recently as an engagement manager with McKinsey & Co. and previously at Accenture’s offices in both the U.S. and London. Rob began his career with IBM. MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.