India's Wipro Ventures raises $150m for second global fund
Wipro Ventures, a venture capital investment arm of the eponymous Indian enterprise software provider, has raised $150 million for its second fund.
The vehicle will follow the same strategy as its predecessor, backing early to mid-stage enterprise software start-ups. Fund I closed at $100 million and has invested in 16 start-ups and participated in five early-stage enterprise-focused funds, according to a statement.
The firm is led by Venu Pemmaraju (pictured right), formerly an investment director at Intel Capital, and Biplab Adhya (pictured left), previously a Wipro vice-president.
Fund I invested directly in US companies like CyCognito, a cybersecurity player that performs risk assessment for enterprise firms and HeadSpin, a platform that helps developers understand the mobile user experience. There have been two exits. Demoisto and Imanis Data were acquired by Palo Alto Networks and Cohesity respectively.
Wipro Ventures will write checks of $1-10 million targeting revenue-generating IT services start-ups in Israel, India and the US. Portfolio companies will have the opportunity to distribute their software solutions to Wipro’s customers. As of the end of last year, more than 200 customers globally were using software from Wipro Ventures-backed businesses.
Previous LP commitments have been made to venture funds managed by the likes of Israel-based TLV Partners and Glilot Capital Partners, New York-based Work-Bench and BOLDstart, and Singapore-based B Capital Group.
“With this new $150 million allocation, we will maintain our focus on investing in enterprise software segments, like cybersecurity, app development, data, cloud infrastructure, and automation solutions, with additional emphasis on specific vertical domains, like 5G, healthcare IT, and financial services,” said Adhya.
Rival enterprise software giant Infosys launched a similar investment vehicle in 2015, raising $500 million. It has been invested in seven companies and two funds. HCL, L&T Infotech, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra are also active buyers of private companies in the space.
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