Infosys, one of the leading IT service providing company of India, has announced that it is investing Rs 31.6 crore(approx. $4.6 million) in the maiden fund of Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on backing technology startups in the country.
This deal marks the first investment by Infosys in a local venture capital fund, and will help Stellaris reach a first close for its fund. Prior to this, Infosys has invested in Vertex Partners, a US-based VC firm.
Commenting about this development, Alok Goyal of Stellaris said:
India has a vibrant tech nology startup ecosystem today that has the potential to create breakthrough companies on a global scale. We are very excited to partner with Infosys, whose deep technology expertise, understanding of global enterprises, and worldwide footprint can be immensely valuable to the investment team as well as Stellaris’ portfolio companies.
A couple of months ago, we reported that the company was planning to invest money in Stellaris Venture Partners. As we reported, the investment was made through the company’s $500 million Innovation Fund, which was set aside to invest in early-stage startups.
With the funding, the VC firm is aiming to back entrepreneurs building applications for global businesses, SMBs and consumers in verticals such as financial services, retail, healthcare and education.
Till now, Infosys has directly invested in around seven startups from its Innovation Fund. The fund has invested in Trifacta, Waterline Data, WHOOP, CloudEndure, Airviz Speck, ANSR Consulting, and Nova.
The Infosys Innovation Fund was launched in 2015 with an aim to invest in entrepreneurial ventures delivering innovation in domains relevant to the company’s core business. Its aspiration was to amplify start-ups that build purposeful solutions while being steered by innovators who share the same mindset as of Infosys – nurturing deep client relationships with an unwavering commitment to ethics and mutual respect.
Stellaris Venture Partners was set up by Alok Goyal, Rahul Chowdhri and Ritesh Bangalani. All three of them were previously partners at India-based Helion Venture Partners. The firm describes itself as an early stage venture fund looking to support the next generation of companies.
As per the VC firm, our $2 trillion economy is growing at about 7% and has world’s second largest internet user base. Thus, it sees a massive opportunity for new tech enabled business across all industries.
This investment news from Infosys and Stellaris comes at a time when Indian software services giants are actively participating in startups and technology innovation globally. Along with Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services have jumped in to support startups as well.
