Former Wipro CEO and managing director Abidali Neemuchwala has joined Dallas Venture Partners (DVP) as a venture partner. The India-American technology services industry veteran said the fund is looking to ramp up its investment in India and put in $300-500 million over 10 years in early stage startups across the country.
DVP plans to invest $2 to 10 million in firms that are working on cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things and other emerging technologies.
“Early stage startups get the capital. But what they lack is mentoring. We will bring in our expertise and help them achieve the right product market fit,” said Neemuchwala, adding he and other partners would bring a team of industry experts to the startups and his experience of working in the IT services sector..
Dayakar Puskoor, a serial entrepreneur with a track record of successful investments, would serve as the managing director of DVP, said the company.
The erstwhile avatar of DVP invested in twenty-one startups with multiple successful exits and with a combined portfolio enterprise value of more than$ 1 billion.
“DVP will build on Dayakar’s vision of bringing the Silicon Valley spirit to Dallas and I am excited to begin this journey to play my part in nurturing innovation, mentoring startups, and celebrating entrepreneurship,” said Neemuchwala.
The former Wipro chief executive said the ease of doing business in India for startups has significantly improved and ‘a firm can be started from a garage’ in the country.
Citing a report, DVP said more than 55,000 startups were launched in India in the last five and half years and out of which over 3,200 startups raised $63 billion in funding. The digital boom and technology disruption especially in the current times has led to increased interest of investors particularly in the technology domain.
DVP will tap the opportunities that the burgeoning tech ecosystem is offering to overseas investors and ‘aims to bring Silicon Valley spirit from Dallas to India’.
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