Apus to invest Rs. 100 crore in Indian startups, to open India R&D center.

Chinese app maker Apus Group is setting aside a corpus of Rs. 100 crore to invest in Indian startups, as it follows in the wake of its storied compatriots--Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi—that are betting on this market.

Apus, which the company says is an acronym for 'A Perfect User System', aims to fund early-stage companies in the area of mobility over the next three years.

'This is only stage one,' said Li Tao the chief executive officer of Apus which is in early discussions with smartphone maker Micromax, among others, for strategic partnerships. Apus has 15% of its 80 million users come from India, its largest market.

'We will give them ( Indian startups) the Apus platform, technical support and funding to grow in the Indian market,' said Tao. Investors in Apus--Chengwei Capital, QiMing Venture Partners, SIG Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Northern Light Venture -- would also commit to follow- on investments in high performing startups backed by the Chinese company, if the startups perform well.


ET