New Delhi: Infosys today said it will invest Rs 31.6 crore in Stellaris Venture Partners, an early stage venture fund. Infosys has signed a definitive agreement to a Limited Partner investment of Rs 31.6 crore from its Innovation Fund in Stellaris Venture Partners, the company said in a statement.
This investment is towards the first close of Stellaris' fund, it added. This is the second investment announced by Infosys within a week that is being funded by Infosys' Innovation Fund.
Set up in 2013, Infosys had beefed up its fund five-fold to USD 500 million in 2015 to provide financing to startups and new technologies like artificial intelligence. "India's startup ecosystem is witnessing rapid growth led by areas such as cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and big data, as well as the widespread proliferation of smartphones," Infosys said.
In this environment, Stellaris aims to back entrepreneurs building applications for global businesses, Indian SMBs and consumers in verticals such as financial services, retail, healthcare and education, it added.
"We believe Stellaris with their extensive operational and domain expertise in enterprise software and services in both India and US, is uniquely positioned to leverage India's capital efficient talent pool, to harness the next wave of enterprise innovation in India," Infosys Executive Vice-President and Global Head of Corporate Development and Ventures Ritika Suri said.
With this investment, Infosys looks forward to gaining early access to innovative new companies in India that are inventing the future of enterprises globally, she added. Stellaris has built a robust network of successful entrepreneurs and advisors to source, evaluate and mentor the best Indian startups.
"India has a vibrant technology startup ecosystem today that has the potential to create breakthrough companies on a global scale. We are very excited to partner with Infosys, whose deep technology expertise, understanding of global enterprises and worldwide footprint can be immensely valuable to the investment team as well as Stellaris' portfolio companies," Stellaris co-founder Alok Goyal said.Infosys' investment in Stellaris is expected to be completed by December 15, 2016.
On November 18, Infosys had said it has invested DKK 149,20,000 (about Rs 14.49 crore) in UNSILO, a Danish artificial intelligence startup focused on advanced text analysis. Earlier this month, Infosys had also announced investing an undisclosed amount in the US-based TidalScale.
