The venture investment arm of Reliance Industries is keen to invest in start-up technology companies that can help its upcoming 4G venture and support the core petrochemicals business.

RIL’s GenNext Ventures may acquire up to 15 per cent stake in young companies that make it to the next round of GenNext Innovation Hub, a start-up accelerator programme launched in partnership with Microsoft Ventures.

On Friday, 11 technology start-ups from sectors such as education, healthcare, transportation, retail, and human resources graduated from the first batch of GenNext’s accelerator programme.

“The first batch was a process of learning for us and so we did not pick up stake in any of the 11 companies. However, we will invest in innovative companies that can help come through in the second round,” Vivek Rai Gupta, Managing Partner, told BusinessLine .

As part of its four-month mentorship programme, GenNext mentored the 11 start-ups on business models, customer acquisition strategy, analytics, financing models and others. GenNext and Microsoft Ventures are now accepting applications for the second batch, which will start in June.

GenNext is keen to pick interests in companies that have innovative offerings in the areas of digital, financial services, security, energy management, healthcare, home automation and connected cars, Rai added. However, he did not spell out how much RIL would spend on emerging companies.

“We are very flexible. At the end of the day, what determines the ticket size is the opportunity as we have the strength of RIL’s balance sheet to support us,” Rai said.

Microsoft Ventures, on the other hand, will continue to play the role of an accelerator and not pick up any interests in the start-ups, said Kattayil Rajinish Menon, Director-Start-ups.

RIL’s cash reserves stood at ₹78, 691 crore as on December 31, 2014. Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of RIL, is expected to launch 4G services later this year.

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