After buying a significant stake in Dion Global Services and scouting for acquisitions of two or three more this year, Mahindra Satyam has turned into a investor, intending to fund promising firms in the areas of mobility, social networking, security solutions and cloud.
It has set up a $50-million joint investment fund in association with SBI Holdings, a Japanese venture capital firm. The two firms put in equal resources to raise the fund.
The 12-year-old SBI Holdings' core businesses include brokerage and investment banking, asset management, commercial banking, insurance and online settlement. The group currently manages more than $3 billion in committed capital.
It began its overseas funding in 2005 with Temasek Group, an investment arm of the Singapore Government.
“The fund will be subject to regulatory and other approvals. The objective of the fund is to help leapfrog the innovation curve by investing in high growth and promising companies in the evolving ICT space,” Mr C.P. Gurnani, Chief Executive Officer of Mahindra Satyam, said here on Tuesday.
New opportunities
“We intend to harness new business opportunities in IT services and consulting work from companies the fund invests in,” he said.
“Investments in enterprise mobility and collaborative applications are the leading IT investment priorities for businesses in 2012. This fund, managed by SBIH's expertise in this domain, will be an accelerator for our growth,” he said.
On Dion board
After achieving normalcy and better earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortisation at the end of third quarter, the company has set its eyes on acquisitions. In January, it acquired a 15 per cent stake in Dion that serves capital markets.
Meanwhile, Mahindra Satyam is considering nominating its man on the Dion board. Mr Gurnani or some other top executive could be named as Mahindra Satyam's representative on the Dion board.
“The two firms' complementary strengths will create an investment platform which will enable the fund to capture opportunities in the global ICT sector,” Mr Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO, SBI Holdings, said.