India-headquartered consumer electronics producer Intex Technologies is investing between Rs 1.5bn and Rs 2bn ($23m to $31m) in a corporate venturing fund, Times of India reported on Tuesday.
Intex manufactures smartphones, computer accessories, televisions and other home entertainment products. The decision to go into strategic investments comes weeks after competitor Micromax launched its own venture capital unit.
Keshav Bansal, a director at Intex Technologies, told TOI the company was moving into corporate venturing to diversify its holdings into sectors such as sport, healthcare and the internet of things.
Intex will target ticket sizes between Rs 100m and Rs 150m and will look to take stakes sized between 10% and 25%. Its first investment is in Rooter, the India-based creator of an app that allows sports fans to engage with each other during live events.
The deal comes after Rooter received an undisclosed amount of funding from actor Boman Irani.
Piyush Kumar, founder and chief executive of Rooter, said: “Rooter is essentially a tech-based platform and we wanted to have an investor on board who could also be our strategic partner and help us evolve our product to fully realise its potential.
Intex’s deep understanding of the smartphone market and its popularity in tier-2 and 3 cities of the country will help us in leveraging for promotions and develop Rooter’s novel idea further, optimising it to perfectly fit the needs of smartphone users everywhere.”
– Image courtesy of Intex Technologies