Inventus to invest $125-mn in IT sector

Bangalore: Inventus Capital Partners, a US-India venture firm, said it has earmarked $125 million for investment in early-growth Indian companies in the information technology sector.

The company said it has already decided to invest up to $10 million each in two software companies. Mr Kanwal Rekhi, Co-founder and Managing Director, Inventus Capital, said one of the companies is based in Bangalore, and the other has a development centre in Bangalore.

Inventus said it plans to invest up to $10 million in 15-20 early-growth companies in the next few years. This is the first time Inventus would invest in Indian companies, it said.

Ninety per cent of the $125 million venture fund it has raised for investing in India has come from global institutional investors, the company said. Mr Rekhi said Inventus would not move beyond the information technology companies. Mr Samir Kumar, Managing Director, said companies that develop software for the retail, healthcare, mobile and internet sectors could be attractive for the firm.

Inventus said two of its managing directors, Mr Rekhi and Mr John Dougery, would be based in Sillicon Valley. Mr Samir Kumar and Mr Parag Dhol, the two other managing directors, would be based in Bangalore.

Inventus has invested in over 100 companies since 1993, particularly in the software products, services, embedded software, semiconductor and mobile services companies, it said.