Private Equity Online

New placement firm Devi Capital to focus on India,
24 Feb 2006

Jyoti Aggarwala, former managing director at Thomas Capital Group, has started her own placement agency that will connect LPs with India fund managers.

Devi Capital, a New York-based fundraising placement and consulting firm that will focus on India, was recently launched by former Thomas Capital Group managing partner Jyoti Aggarwala.

Aggarwala has more than fifteen years of experience in marketing alternative assets, with a specialisation in South Asian and South East Asian equities. Previously, Aggarwala worked at Nomura Securities, Peregrine Brokerage and Ladenburg Thalman. Most recently, she was responsible for marketing efforts in Asia and Europe for Thomas Capital Group.

“I was working with Thomas Capital, and while I was there I started to get lots of requests of, ‘Can you help us with due diligence in the Indian market’,” Aggarwala said.

Aggarwala says few placement agents have strong connections to the Indian subcontinent. “I hadn’t seen many people with the level of contacts, both in the public market and in alternative assets, that I’ve developed,” she said. “These are people that are my peers, I’ve known and followed these [fund] managers’ careers over time.”

Devi Capital will work in affiliation with Centenium Advisors to perform reference checks, help in the due diligence process and make connections for those wishing to invest in the subcontinent.

“For most institutions, having an India allocation is part of an emerging market allocation,” Aggarwala said. “Most teams are small and stretched, it’s not always possible for that investment manager to make a trip to India, or to have the network to get the reference checks done. On short notice, I’m able to get all the contacts they need. I’m almost amazed at what my network brings up.”


Aggarwala said many limited partners have identified India as one of the main growth markets for the future, but aren’t sure how to proceed. Aggarwala speaks several Indian dialects including Punjabi, Hindi and Urdi, and has extensive contacts in the region, especially from her time at Nomura Securities on the emerging markets desk. She says she’s already received a “huge amount of interest” in her services.

“I have more business than I can actually execute at this time,” she said, “which is a happy problem.”