About

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured?

We have a very simple structure as we have only two members in the team. The vice president – legal, Deepti Dasgupta, reports to general counsel Arun Madhu who in turn reports to the managing director, finance and operations. The legal team works closely with the finance team and the business team and has primary responsibility for all legal matters relating to the Nexus funds and the various members of the Nexus funds who are board members of the portfolio companies. The Nexus team located out of Mumbai assists on matters across the globe (with the assistance of qualified external counsel). The legal team advises on new investments in India and other jurisdictions, follow-on financings, exits and governance matters. Apart from this, the team also acts as a thought partner for its portfolio companies helping them with strategic guidance on M&A, best practices and policies and corporate secretarial matters, tax issues; and works closely with the finance team and in combination act as a comprehensive compliance team on matters relating to the Nexus funds and related entities.

What recent political, economic or regulatory changes in India have impacted your company and the team the most?

We would not single out any one change. There have been a slew of changes on the foreign direct investment, direct and indirect tax, company law and insolvency/bankruptcy fronts over the past couple of years which have had an impact on structuring of investments/exits and also monitoring of ongoing operations and compliance. We anticipate that they will continue to have an impact over the next few years as interpretations are firmed up and we see more practical application and enforcement of these new laws.

Can you sum up the team culture/ethos?

The team culture/ethos is continuously evolving but the some of the key characteristics are: Act as “pro-active facilitators”: We aim to act as a reliable bridge between the Nexus business team and the external world and try to pro-actively facilitate the achievement of business goals on transactions while being mindful of legal issues. Quite often language and other transaction documentation issues are blown out of proportion in the context of a transaction negotiation and to be able to have sight of business ‘big picture’ while providing legal advice in these circumstances is a constant endeavour for the team. We think this is one of the key features of most good in-house teams especially in investment funds. Being Balanced: Venture capitals are long term investors and act as partners in the journey of a portfolio company which can go on for several years. It is extremely critical to realise that investments are just the beginning of a journey and there will be multiple other stops on the way. Quite often we see that external counsel adopt a ‘transactional’ attitude and that coupled with a confrontational style of working/negotiating can yield disastrous results. So being able to have a balanced approach which is mindful of company/founder interests and having a long term view is an integral part of the team culture.

Detail oriented and the importance of basics: Given the access to external support, in-house teams can often take an approach which chooses not to focus on the details or the basics. It is our endeavour to try and do the opposite. The team is always trying to focus on the details and trying to get to the root of issues because we have the responsibility for ensuring that high level thought is distilled into fine print. We try to inculcate a strong sense of responsibility and accountability. This has helped us not only accept but rather thrive with a ‘the buck stops with us’ attitude. Willingness to have wide spectrum of interactions: this is one of our key tenets. Team members are urged to forget about how old/senior they are or how many years of experience you have and do whatever is necessary in the circumstances and to have no ego or inhibition in interacting with a wide spectrum of people and matters. One conversation could be with a junior Company Secretary and the next one with the CEO of a Billion Dollar company. The ability to straddle multiple dimensions is extremely important in being able to ensure we can get things done. Focus on…