Based in India, it will be part of The Carlyle Group's Asia fund which was set up earlier this year. The size of the Indian fund is not known yet. The VC has already established offices in Hong Kong and Seoul. India will be its third presence and cater to the entire south-east Asia region.

The Carlyle Group is one of the world's largest private global investment firms and has been in the global fund management for past 13 years. It originates, structures and acts as legal equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations and build-ups and growth capital financings.

It had put together a $159 million fund for Asia, excluding Japan, earlier this year. Known as the Carlyle Asia Venture Partners 1 (CAVP1), it is focussed on majority stakes in technology-related businesses in the development stages, from start-up to an initial public offering. The Carlyle Group has plans to build an investment portfolio for the fund that consists primarily of opportunities in the Internet, telecom infrastructure, wireless communications and software applications.

CAVP1's investment committee comprises co-founders and MDs Daniel A D'Aniello, David M Rubenstein, William E Conway Jr, Edward J Mathias and Robert E Grady. Of these, the first two will be in India to announce the setting up of Indian office next week. Among its vice-presidents are two Indians: Chandrasekar and Balaji Srinivas. One of them is likely to head the Indian office.

The Carlyle Group has invested so far in aerospace, IT services, defense, healthcare, environmental services, telecom, food processing, bottling, retail and wholesale distribution.

Elsewhere in Asia, the fund has investments in China, Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Some of its prominent investments include Educomp Datamatics, ITNation.com, Placements.com, Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC), Prime Communications and Genesis Cable. The promoter, Carlyle Asia Partners LP, is a Pan-Asian private investment firm.