Bessemer Venture Partners Expands India Team Industry Veteran Devesh Garg Named Managing Director

LARCHMONT, N.Y., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Bessemer Venture Partners, the oldest venture capital operation in the United States, today announced that Devesh Garg has been named a Managing Director of the global investment firm's India practice. Mr. Garg brings more than 20 years of high-tech industry experience to the existing nine-person Mumbai based investment team.

In June, Bessemer closed its latest $1 billion global fund with $350 million earmarked for investments in India. Since opening the India office in 2003, Bessemer has invested in 17 Indian companies including:

    -- Motilal Oswal -- a well diversified financial services group which was
       recently listed on the major Indian stock exchanges;
    -- Sarovar Hotels -- the operator of 27 hotels across India under the Park
       Plaza and Hometel brands;
    -- Lloyd Electric & Engineering -- India's leading manufacturer of
       components for air conditioning and refrigeration equipment.

In addition to Mr. Garg, Bessemer has dedicated five other partners to the India effort, including Anil Sarin, who joined Bessemer last year from Prudential ICICI, where he was co-head of equities. Mr. Sarin said, "Devesh is a great addition to our already strong India team. His experience and expertise will help our promoters and portfolio company executives achieve world class scale and success. Expanding our India team with talent like Devesh will strengthen our positioning in the market as value-added investors."

Mr. Garg added, "I am delighted to join the Bessemer India team. I look forward to continuing our tradition of investing and working with Indian management teams that seek an experienced financial partner to help them grow their family businesses to their full potential."

After a 20-year career in the high-tech industry, Mr. Garg joined Bessemer in 2003 as an Operating Partner. In that capacity, he advised several of Bessemer's portfolio companies and most recently served as founding CEO for the Bessemer funded multi-core semiconductor start-up, Tilera.

Prior to joining Bessemer, Mr. Garg was General Manager of the Security Business Unit at Broadcom, where as part of the pre-IPO team, he led his division to $450 million in annual revenues. During Mr. Garg's tenure, Broadcom grew from a start-up to total revenues of $1 billion and today has a market capitalization of approximately $20 billion.

Before working at Broadcom, Mr. Garg led the sales team at Synopsys and served in engineering and managerial positions at LSI Logic, National Semiconductor, Bechtel, and Raychem. Mr. Garg holds a B.S.E.E. from San Jose State University and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. He and his family are originally from Lucknow and have settled in Mumbai.

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners is a global investment group with offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Bangalore, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Tel Aviv. As the oldest venture capital practice in the United States, Bessemer has partnered as an active, hands-on investor in Ciena, Ingersoll Rand, Parametric, Skype, Staples, VeriSign and W.R. Grace and over 100 other companies that have gone public. To learn more, visit www.bvp.com.