Bala Srinivasa and Prashanth Aluru, partners at Kalaari Capital, have resigned from the venture capital firm, according to separate media reports.
The exits are “not material†as the partners had spent less than two and a half years at the firm and they did not come under the “key-man†clause for the fund, Vani Kola, co-founder and managing director of Kalaari Capital, told The Economic Times.
According to the key-man clause, a fund cannot make new investments if certain executives of the firm are absent.
An email query sent to Kola did not elicit a response till the time of filing this article. Srinivasa and Aluru could not be reached out for comments immediately.
Srinivasa had joined Kalaari Capital in 2015. He was handling the VC firm's investments in sectors such as fintech, media and SaaS (software as a service).
He is expected to join Unitary Helion, an early stage fund floated by Rahul Chandra, co-founder and managing director of homegrown venture capital firm Helion Venture Partners LLC.
Srinivasa has been involved with young technology companies for over 20 years. Prior to joining Kalaari Capital, he worked with Amba Research, which was acquired by a financial analytics and ratings firm Moody’s in 2013.
Aluru, who had joined Kalaari Capital in May 2016, managed the VC firm's investment opportunities in areas such as consumer internet and enterprise technology. Prior to joining Kalaari, he was partner at Bain & Co.
The development comes as Kalaari Capital is looking to raise its fourth fund. Kola told the financial newspaper that the VC firm plans to raise the fourth fund in the second half of 2018.
Japanese telecom and Internet conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp is considering investing in a fund of Kalaari Capital, VCCircle reported in July.
Kalaari Capital had, in May 2015, said in filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it had started the process to raise $275 million through two new funds. Later, in September 2015, Kola was cited as saying in several media reports that the firm had floated a fund to mobilise $290 million. Since then, the VC firm has not made any disclosures on whether it has raised capital for these funds.
Previously, Kalaari Capital had raised $150 million in its second fund in 2012. At the time, the firm had also rebranded itself—it earlier operated as IndoUS Venture Partners. IndoUS Venture Partners had mobilised $189 million in its first fund in 2006.
