Our aim is to bring PE discipline into the VC world: Ex-KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayar

From Left, Sanjay Nayar, CEO, KKR and Mandar Dandekar, partner, Sorin Investments; image credit: special arrangement

Synopsis
Sanjay Nayar, as the former CEO and chairman of KKR India, helped the private equity own businesses across sectors. Two months after retiring from KKR India, Nayar doubled down on his own early-stage venture capital fund, Sorin Investments. What was Nayar’s experience in leading a PE to success to shepherding his own VC, ET Prime spoke with him at length.

In 2009, when global private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co Inc. (KKR) decided to enter India, they turned to none other than Sanjay Nayar to set up shop in the country. Nayar had worked across senior positions at Citibank for over 25 years across India, the US and the UK. He was handpicked by KKR co-founder Henry Kravis. Fourteen years later, the US-based firm boasts of an investment worth USD14 billion in India led by Nayar in