Intel Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of the world’s largest chip maker, is setting the stage for its second fund to invest in India. The corpus, according to investment bankers, has been firmed at $250 million, same as the first fund from which Intel Capital is currently investing in India, since 2005.
Intel Capital has invested 80 per cent of the corpus and as is the wont in venture capital and private equity fund raising, fund houses usually start work on its next fund as and when around 70 per cent of its current fund is drawn down.
A spokesperson for Intel India said they will launch a second fund as and when they exhaust the ongoing fund completely. However, investment bankers who have had recent meetings with the management of Intel Capital in India said they have been sounded off on the second fund.
Intel Capital has so far invested $280 million in 77 companies in India, and was investing from its global fund prior to forming the India fund. Intel Capital has backed some of the most promising companies such as Deccanet Designs, Sharekhan, FutureSoft, India Infoline, Sasken, Rediff, R Systems and Subex besides many others early on in their growth path.
Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than $10 billion in over 1,100 companies in 51 countries. In this timeframe, 189 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 258 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2010, Intel Capital invested $327 million in 119 investments with approximately 44 per cent of funds invested outside the United States and Canada.
Besides having a dedicated India Technology Fund, Intel Capital has funds for America, China, Brazil, West Asia & Turkey, and a few other technology specific funds. It aims to channel investments into sectors such as cleantech, computing, consumer internet, digital home and digital media, manufacturing and memory, mobility software and services.
The landscape of corporate venture capital funds backed by global technology majors has been on an upswing in India. In addition to Intel Capital, which has been an early mover during 1998 in this space in India, other technology majors such as Cisco, SAP, Qualcomm, Siemens Ventures have been getting active in India.
