IBM's VC arm eyes India

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 10 May 2007, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: IBM's venture capital group is now eyeing India as a potential geography to build an ecosystem of start-up partners for developing innovative solutions and products, says an Economic Times report. The group is in the process of identifying four-five VC firms in the country for the programme, according to ET. "Innovation in India is growing at a rapid pace, in fact faster than how it was in China when we went there a couple of years ago. So we are looking to tie up with a few VC firms including a couple of local VC players to help us identify innovative companies and technology," Claudia Fan Munce, IBM Venture Capital Group MD told ET. The IBM venture capital group is setting up an India presence and will have a small team in place in one-two months. This team will work with VC firms and local IBM resources from across divisions. According to Claudia, the hot sectors in India for the group include KPO, healthcare, Web 2.0, collaborative & content space. The IBM venture, which looks to partner with VC firms to create strategic advantage with portfolio companies and key technologies in new markets, was started seven years ago. Unlike other corporates like Intel and Cisco, IT major doesn't put in cash but makes, what Claudia calls `in-kind investment?. This includes providing hardware and software resources, people, distribution power, ennoblement of assets, generation of sales leads and access to Fortune 500 customers. Claudia declined any specifics on the number of partners IBM is looking at in India as part of this programme. Globally though, the number of partners through VCs has gone up from the initial 21 companies in 2000 to about 1,300 currently. She also said that 150 plus companies out of this were generating significant revenues for IBM. The IBM Venture Capital Group draws its resources from all of IBM?s divisions. It also has partners in US, China, Brazil, Europe, Germany, Ireland, Japan and Israel.