BS People: Sanjeev Aggarwal

Irate investor

Sanjeev Aggarwal, the founder of Helion Ventures, kept his phone switched off during the second half of Wednesday; he was tired of fielding calls on Citibank’s Rs300-crore fraud. But he should have been prepared for the battery of questions: Claiming a conspiracy among the bank’s brass, Aggarwal filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Gurgaon police, who registered an FIR naming Citibank global CEO Vikram Pandit, India head Pramit Jhaveri, as well as other senior Indian and global officials. “One person can’t do this. There are more people involved,” Aggarwal said.

Until this week, Aggarwal was best known for helping to usher in the business process outsourcing (BPO) era in India. In one of the largest deals in the domestic technology sector, Daksh — which Aggarwal co-founded in 2000 with Pavan Vaish — was bought by IBM in 2004 for about Rs700 crore. Daksh, which started with 500 people, grew to 20,000 in the first six years. Aggarwal subsequently co-founded venture capital firm Helion Venture Partners.

According to Aggarwal, Citibank misappropriated about Rs32 crore that he had invested through the bank. “My trust was shaken when I found a gap of Rs32 crore, which had flown out of my account into other accounts, he said, adding: “Citi needs to own up to its wrongdoing, and make good my losses.”

Ironically, Citi Venture Capital International, the private equity arm of the global banking major, had made an initial $6-million investment in Daksh. General Atlantic Partners also invested in Daksh in 2002. Another PE major, Actis, had invested $1.76 million in Daksh as start-up capital.

Aggarwal served as CEO of Daksh until June 2006, after which he co-founded Helion, a $350-million India-based venture investment fund. He serves on the boards of various companies, including Amba Research, Anantara, Make My Trip, Mindworks Global, Global Talent Track, Azure Power and Nine dot Nine Mediaworx.

Prior to founding Daksh, Aggarwal worked for 15 years with technology companies, serving the domestic market, including Motorola India. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA.