VC firm SAIF Partners, which says it has over $4 billion under management, has appointed former Freecharge CEO Alok Goel as a Managing Director. Freecharge was recently acquired by Snapdeal in April this year. (Read Why Snapdeal wants to buy Freecharge) Prior to joining Freecharge, Goel was COO of Redbus, and its sale of 80% stake for $101 million to Naspers was fairly controversial (more here). At SAIF Partners, Goel will be looking into early stage investments, the fund has said. Before Redbus, Goel was at Google for five years in various roles including product management of Google Display Network. He was also heading Search and Mobile Products in India, besides serving as Product Manager for Search and Geo Local, India. SAIF Partners has investments in some fairly significant companies, including Paytm, BookMyShow, Urbanladder, Zovi, Firstcry, and also companies like Sify. It took JustDial and MakeMyTrip to IPO, and in case of Homeshop18, almost. Disclosure: Paytm parent One97 Communications is an advertiser with MediaNama
