India-based IT services provider Infosys has agreed to invest Rs316m ($4.6m) toward the first close of venture capital firm Stellaris Venture Partners’ first fund.
The capital will be drawn from Infosys’s $500m Innovation Fund, which was launched in 2013 with an initial tranche of $100m, and is intended to support startups in sectors such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing.
Stellaris Venture Partners – an early-stage venture fund established by partners Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri, former executives at India-focused investment firm Helion Venture Partners – aims to raise $100m for its debut fund.
The fund will back entrepreneurs building applications for a range of sectors, including global businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises in India and verticals such as financial services, retail, healthcare and education.
Enterprise software provider SAP is in advanced talks over a potential $10m investment in the new fund, Mint reported on August 18, citing two people familiar with the situation.
Infosys began investing from the Innovation Fund in late 2014, providing funding for two US-based companies, business collaboration technology company Clique Intelligence and video analytics developer Ooyala.
Ritika Suri, executive vice president and global head of corporate development and ventures at Infosys said: “We believe Stellaris with their extensive operational and domain expertise in enterprise software and services in both India and US, is uniquely positioned to leverage India’s capital efficient talent pool, to harness the next wave of enterprise innovation in India.
“With this investment we look forward to gaining early access to innovative new companies in India that are inventing the future of enterprises globally.”