Wipro Ventures announces $150M Fund II to invest in enterprise startups
1Reported today on TechCrunch
For the full article visit: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/16/wipro-ventures-second-fund/
Wipro Ventures announces $150M Fund II to invest in enterprise startups
Wipro Ventures, the investment arm of one of India's largest IT companies by market capitalization, said on Thursday it has raised $150 million for its second fund as it looks to invest in more enterprise startups and venture capitalist funds.
As with its $100 million maiden fund in 2015, Wipro Ventures will use its second fund to invest in early and mid-stage startups worldwide that are building enterprise solutions in cybersecurity, analytics, cloud infrastructure, test automation, and AI, said Biplab Adhya and Venu Pemmaraju, managing partners at Wipro Ventures, in an interview with TechCrunch.
Through its maiden fund, Wipro Ventures invested in 16 startups and five VC funds. Adhya said two of its portfolio startups - including Demisto, which sold to Palo Alto for $560 million - have seen an exit while others are showing good signs.
"We are pleased with the traction these startups are showing and the value we have added to Wipro, and we look forward to continuing this journey," he said.
Adhya said Wipro Ventures looks to be a long-term investor in a startup. In addition to often participating in a startup's follow-on financial rounds, it tends to stay with a startup until its IPO, he said.
Of the 16 startups Wipro Ventures has invested to date, 11 of them are based in the U.S., four in Israel, and one in India. Adhya said geography tends not to play a crucial role when investing in a startup, and he is open to ideas from anywhere in the world.
A corporate giant showing interest in picking stake in private equity firms is not a new phenomenon. Leaving aside the American giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, all of which operate investment arms, Indian