The Canadian branch of US-based computing equipment manufacturer Cisco will announce firm plans for its corporate venturing activities in the next month, according to Computer Dealer News.
Nitin Kawale, president of Cisco Canada, told CDN that the company was exploring corporate venturing in Canada because of a lack of innovation in the Canadian IT sector. Cisco Canada has the resources to invest, and it will take minority stakes in startups that have the ability to match its strategy.
“We’ve done this in other places and we have done some stuff in Canada, but it was without focus,” Kawale said. “It took a while to convince the company about this. We wanted to do a lot more and whatever money we asked for I got and HQ then doubled it.”
Cisco Canada will seek to partner with venture capital firms on investments, he added, but its venture capital investments will be limited.
Kawale said: “They can be a funnel for us, but let me make it clear to the VCs and the incubators on what we’re looking for: You’re not going to see 100 investments made by Cisco Canada in a year. We will pick and choose.”