Intel Capital, the biggest venture capital investor in the world, is to “invest big” in India across companies in technology and e-commerce space. The investments would be mainly from its $250-million fund, of which it has already invested about 80 per cent.
The venture capital unit of Intel Corp, the world’s largest chipmaker, would also invest in cloud computing, data analysis, software, education, consumer Internet and mobility among others.
Key market
“India has been an important geography for us, and we have one of the largest geography teams in India. We are investing in a big way in India,” Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani said on the sidelines of the ‘Intel Capital Global Summit 2013’ here.
“E-commerce has been a heavy investment opportunity for us during the last couple of years,” he said, adding that e-commerce has barely scratched the surface in India, like many other countries across the world. He, however, did not specify the quantum of investments that would be made in Indian companies. At this point in time, Intel Capital is not looking at setting up a new fund for India.
The stage-agnostic investor would also look at investing in wearable technology companies across the world as they touch the entire spectrum of computing. The company, which had already made investments in Recon Investments, Sotera, Basis Science, Atomic Labs in Canada, continues to scout for similar investments across the world.
Wearable devices
“Wearables are an interesting category and an emerging trend. We believe that there will be hundreds of millions of wearables that people will wear in the future,” Sodhani said.
Intel Cap, which had its shares of failures also, is also looking at investing in countries in the Asia-Pacific region. These include nations such as Japan (where there is already a heavy investment), Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore among others.
“We are investing in countries where other venture capital funds don't even take a flight to.”
Intel Capital has invested about $11 billion in 1,300 companies, and had made 500 exits.
(This correspondent is in San Diego at the invitation of Intel Capital.)