Wipro To Invest Up To 600 Crore In Startups


BANGALORE: India’s third largest IT services major Wipro has set up a $100 million venture capital fund to invest in technology start-ups across the world reports Economic Times. The initiative is taken by Wipro’s Chief Strategy Officer Rishad Premji the elder son of Wipro chairman Azim Premji. He has already started exploring opportunities in start-ups focused in niche technologies like data, open source and industrial internet among others.

"Wipro has been looking to engage with startups and this fund would help the company further this cause," it said. A source said, "Rishad Premji is taking care of the entire activity on a day-to-day basis" reports Business Standard.

This model venture being armed by an Indian outsourcer Rishad Premji, who underscores the company's recognition to existential threats faced by traditional IT companies from startups focused on disruptive technologies, including data analytics and machine-to-machine learning, said people familiar with the development.

Wipro which is considered to be one of the first Indian IT players to set up a fund of this sort, and otherglobal tech majors like SAP, Microsoft, Cisco, Qualcomm, IBM and Intel have VC arms. While these funds are mainly focused on making profitable investments and most of the times they help respective parent companies find a suitable match to add value to their businesses.

"Very soon you will hear about this corporate venture fund that the company will be starting," said a person familiar with the development adding that Wipro will invest between $80-100 million (480 crore to 600 crore) in terms of venture funding for the first year. "This sum ($80-100 million) is for the first year. And then it will grow. There will be more coming out of it," said the executive.