As part of the $250 million (1,503 crore) global fund, Cisco has invested in two Indian companies—Mumbai-based Covacsis, a realtime analytics platform for industries, and Bangalore-based Mob-Stac, a mobile app developer. Besides this, it has invested in digital media start-up Qyuki in 2012. Although Cisco declined to share if the agreements with Mobstac and Covacsis included a right of first refusal clause, said it would keep an option open.

The company's funds will invest in mobility, big data and internet of things. "This is new. For companies to look at India seriously, the ecosystem needed to reach a certain scale. It looks like that is happening now," said Ramesh Loganathan, vice president of Progress Software and adjunct faculty at International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

Startups have an opportunity to introduce their own products and upgrades into a fast changing technology environment. These initiatives will provide a perfect leg-up to the 1,000-odd startups that come up every year, according to data compiled by Think-Next, a Microsoft-Ispirt partnership.

Others MNCs like IBM are still looking at startups as an intermediary between the company and clients. "We use startups as a vehicle to give innovative offerings to end clients," said Karthik Padmanabhan, country head of ecosystem development at IBM India. The company has clusters in Silicon Valley, India, and Tel Aviv in Israel, where its products are heavily used by startups.  

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