Gary Wendt, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric Capital Corporation (“GECC”) moved out of GECC in early 1999. Post GECC, he decided to establish a US$ 2 Billion private equity fund to invest in Japan, India, Israel, Poland and Mexico. Bulk of the allocation (US$ 1.5 Billion) was meant for Japan. Other countries would receive US$ 125 Million each. To implement this global strategy, Gary partnered with Impala Partners, a boutique investment and M&A advisory firm founded by former senior GECC executives. In addition, Gary decided to form partnerships with high quality domestic sponsors to leverage their local knowledge and networks in their respective countries (besides Japan).

Gary and Impala tied up with Ambit Corporate Finance for this venture in India. Subsequently, Gary and Ambit also invited HDFC to join the partnership. The root investment strategy lay in Gary’s conviction that “long-term sustainable returns can be generated only by building high quality businesses”. Gary was wary of the dotcom boom. He believed that ‘internet’ is a great tool, which can be used to improve efficiency and re-orient businesses, but is not commerce by itself. He felt that India possessed some of the finest human capital and would be servicing the world in the coming years.

A CEO with similar ideology was the need of the hour, once the partnership and strategy was in place. In August 1999, Vishal Nevatia was identified as the CEO with a mandate to create a team to execute on the defined strategy. Consequently GW Capital an asset management company and India Human Capital Fund; a private equity fund for investments in India, were created.

In January 2000, India Human Capital Fund was the first private equity fund launched in India for domestic investors, with an objective of raising US$ 10 Million. Just after launch, Gary was appointed Chairman and CEO of Conseco Inc, a struggling US insurance and finance company and had to curtail his time commitment to the Fund. The Indian partners and sponsors had to decide whether to cease operations or continue. This was a significant setback and required everyone to get back to the drawing board. HDFC, Ambit and Impala largely left the decision on the way forward to Vishal Nevatia and Vikram Nirula. They offered full support if the team was keen to continue with a caveat that they will now be responsible for fund raising as well, which will largely need to be raised from domestic investor.

With a deep desire to build a high quality private equity firm in India, the Team picked up the gauntlet and set a target to raise US$ 50 Million from investors in India. HDFC and Ambit were the first investors to commit to the Fund. Gary and Impala also contributed to the Fund. Based on HDFC’s credibility, Ambit’s network and tenacity of the Team, the fund managed to attract US$ 35 Million very quickly from top Indian institutions and family offices. The 1st Closing took place in mid-2000 and the Fund commenced investing.

India Value Fund I was not able to attract any more capital after the 1st Closing. India Value Fund II (US$ 150 Million) closed in early 2005 after a challenging and intense global marketing effort of over 15 months. India Value Fund III (US$ 400 Million) was raised in January 2007 with relative ease and was followed by India Value Fund IV (US$ 725 Million) in May 2009.

Based on feedback from investors, India Human Capital Fund was renamed as India Value Fund in 2000. In 2005, GW Capital was renamed as India Value Fund Advisors.