​This Indian company will invest Rs 750 cr in startups in the Silicon Valley

The technology startup arena has registered a sharp rise in the recent past. This hyper-growth inflection point of the startup ecosystem has motivated India’s second largest IT firm Infosys to allocate a quarter of its $500-million fund, which will amount nearly 750 crore, to invest in startups in Silicon Valley, Israel and India along with venture capital firms. This information was revealed in an Economic Times report.

Requesting anonymity, two people familiar with Infosys' plan told ET that the Bengaluru-based software services company has had discussions with about two dozen VC firms to carry out such investment, and this even includes Andreessen Horowitz. According to one of them, "There are no formal agreements with any particular VCs. The strategy is to back startups and entrepreneurs with ideas that align with the company. The idea is not just to be a passive financial investor but take disruptive solutions to customers."

As per the ET report, the chief executive Vishal Sikka is seeking to broaden the company's offerings in newer areas of technology in order to set Infosys apart from its competitors like Cognizant and Wipro in the ever-growing world of technology.

Ritika Suri, who joined Infosys from SAP late last year, is leading the startup fund and mergers and acquisitions, the business daily added. In February, Infosys carried out its first startup investment by sinking about $15 million in a firm spun-off from Dream-Works Animation. Soon after this, the tech major signed a deal worth about Rs 1,200 crore ($200 million) to buy US and Israel-based automation startup Panaya to hunt the best startup clusters across the globe.

With more than 3,000 tech start-ups, India is the fourth largest base for young businesses in the world and it is expected that by 2020 the base will increase to 11,500 tech start-ups, as per a study report by NASSCOM.
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