Bangalore: Cisco has made an investment in Aavishkaar, a venture fund founded to promote development in rural and semi-urban India. Cisco will invest in Aavishkaar India II Company (Aavishkaar II) and will collaborate with other investors to drive sustainable business models with social impact that utilize the power of the network. Working with Aavishkaar, Cisco aims to take advantage of its expertise and promote technology-enabled inclusive growth in the area of social entrepreneurship.

“Participation by Cisco in Aavishkaar II clearly demonstrates the opportunity that rural India holds for creating value and impact. We are confident that Cisco’s expertise as a technology giant and their interest in rural transformation in India as a strategy would benefit not only the fund but our investee companies as well. Aavishkaar’s long track record of working with early stage entrepreneurs and keen understanding of rural India may allow Cisco to improve its intervention strategy in rural India,” said Vineet Rai, founder and managing partner at Aavishkaar.

Over the past few years Cisco has committed up to $200 million of venture capital investments to the country, of which almost half has been utilized. Its direct investments in the region cover a broad spectrum of technology-related investments which are complementary to the growing scale and reach of the investments Aavishkaar will make in rural transformation.

“Cisco is committed to contributing to the communities where we do business and it’s no different in India where we’ve located our Globalisation Centre East and employ thousands of employees who contribute greatly to our engineering operations. Investing in community-oriented initiatives such as Aavishkaar enables to positively impact economic and social development in the country,” said Edzard Overbeek, president, Cisco Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China.