Serial investor and former CEO of AppLabs Sashi Reddi is in talks with a few technology and media start-ups to invest ₹20 crore by the year-end.

Of the ₹100-crore fund he set up to fund start-ups, Reddi put in ₹50 crore in 15 firms, most of them having a base in the Silicon Valley.

“Four out of the 15 firms are ripe for raising another round of funding, this time from venture capital funds. This signals development of the ideas into the next orbit. Generally, only one-third of the companies that get initial funding would move onto the subsequent round,” Reddi said.

SRI Capital, the investment fund he set up from the proceeds of sale of AppLabs to CSC, does not have immediate plans to exit from these investments. The biggest investment (₹12 crore) it made so far is in a Bay Area (San Francisco) chip company.

Its portfolio included investments in Edutor (tablet-based education solutions), ThinCI (graphic chip design) and iMomentous (talent management). “Some of these firms may get follow on investments from us as well,” Reddi, Founder and Managing Trustee, SRI Capital, said.

He said the fund would continue to invest in technology and media companies. However, it made an investment of ₹3 crore in Hello Curry, a fast-food service company. In media, he said he would invest in media distribution firms and not content companies.

Sashi Reddi also established a 220-seater incubation centre that houses the start-ups his fund invested in.

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