Pramod Haque plumps for hybrid funding

Hybrid funding is the way forward for Pramod Haque, managing partner of Norwest Venture Partners and the world's top venture capitalist as per Forbes magazine's annual Midas list.

In simple terms, this means that a start-up can impress one of the world's leading venture capitalist firms if it has a strong front-end in the US, backed by R&D and product development work in India.

Haque, along with nine pioneering technology companies from the US that have received funding from Norwest, interacted with their Indian companies and exchanged ideas and technology trends that are imperative for enterprises in India.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of this interactive session, Haque said, "Currently, 15 of the 40 companies that have received funding from Norwest have their R&D or product development work happening in India. In the last 9-12 months, we have never funded companies in the US which do not have product development work in India. Hybrid funding is the trend going forward."

The companies that have accompanied with Haque include Airespace (wireless LAN technology), AmberPoint (web services management), Cast Iron Systems (application routers), Virtela (VPN services provider), CollabNet (web-based collaborative development), Veraz Networks (Softswitch-based communications services), SPSS (predictive analytics technologies provider).

Haque said these firms have a relevance to both telecom and IT. "Since these sectors are growing significantly in India, the US companies that have accompanied us will have a great impact on the Indian market. In fact, after visiting Delhi and Mumbai, some of these companies have even received RFPs (request for proposals) to bid for contracts," Haque said.