Shagun Kapur Gogia might not have convinced her uncle Rana Kapoor, managing director and chief executive of YES Bank, to appoint her as a board member of the bank, but it appears she has successfully carved out her own space in the financial world.
Gogia is the daughter of Ashok Kapur, who co-founded YES Bank along with his brother-in-law Rana Kapoor. Ashok Kapur died in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
In 2007, Gogia founded investment firm Tuscan Ventures. The firm focuses on private equity investments, offering strategic consultancy and incubating operating businesses, primarily in the logistics space in Asia.
Tuscan had invested in one of India’s largest freight forwarders, LCL Logistix, and in Singapore-based Rasmussen & Simonsen International, before promoting ColdStar Logistics. Gogia is a director in ColdStar, which offers temperature-controlled logistics to manufacturers, processors and wholesalers.
Earlier, Gogia, a double major in economics and biology from Tufts University and an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, had spent three years in the corporate finance team at Rabo India Finance.
At Rabo, she worked on mergers and acquisitions and private equity placements across various industries, including information technology, business process outsourcing and biotechnology.
Rabobank had helped YES Bank’s promoters set up the bank. The Dutch bank had also invested in a minority stake in the Indian private lender.
Before founding Tuscan, Gogia had a three-year stint with private equity fund ICICI Ventures. She was part of the team that closed five deals, with total equity investment of about $100 million.
However, despite her experience in finance, she found it difficult to secure membership in the YES Bank board.
In April 2009, Madhu Kapur, widow of Ashok Kapur, had requested YES Bank to induct her as a board member, but the request was turned down.
Earlier this month, she again requested her daughter be inducted into the board as her nominee member. She also filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, seeking YES Bank’s annual shareholders’ meet today be stayed.
