Naresh Malhotra joins Sequoia Capital India

Mumbai: Leading venture and growth capital investment firm Sequoia Capital India, today announced the appointment. of Naresh Malhotra, former the CEO of retail consumer brand Café Coffee Day to the company''s team as advisor and board member.

Malhotra led the growth of Café Coffee Day from a Bangalore-based retail business to a pan India diversified food services company with over 1,500 retail points in 85 cities today, and a dominant presence in the coffee and lifestyle retail industry.

Malhotra, a commerce graduate from St. Xavier''s College, Kolkata University, has worked with ICI, Unilever Group, and Colgate Palmolive in India and overseas. He was a president and member of the supervisory board of the UB Group, Bangalore and is a founding partner of KPMG, India and was also MD of the corporate finance and practice leader of the real estate, hospitality and retail businesses. In addition to finance,. Malhotra worked in marketing and numerous start-up operations. In early 2000 he joined Virginia-based private equity firm GIV Management Inc as general partner and managing director for India.

Sequoia Capital India currently manages over $1 billion of venture and growth capital funds for India and has been one of the most active investment firms in the market, having invested in over 40 companies in India over the past few years, including market leaders such as Applabs, Bharti Telesoft, Café Coffee Day, Firstsource, Idea Cellular, Indiatimes, Indecomm, SKS Microfinance, and marketRx.