After Wipro, Infosys screens start-ups for partnerships, acquisition

In April last year, Infosys had announced a $100-mn fund to invest in products platforms and solutions

The start-up bug seems to have bitten large Indian information technology (IT) services companies.

Just a few weeks after a team from Wipro met and evaluated around 10 start-ups for a likely investment, Infosys, the country’s second largest IT services company, has also screened a handful of these. The idea was to explore an opportunity to either partner with or invest in.

Speaking at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, Infosys’ Chief Operating Officer U B Pravin Rao said, “A couple of weeks back, we had one of the large venture capital firms showcase six-seven start-ups to us. We have started the evaluation process.

The idea is to see if we can work with start-ups, help amplify their roadmap, help them in scaling up, bundle some of their products into our offerings, and wherever applicable, invest in them as well.”

In April last year, Infosys had announced a $100-million fund to invest in products’ platforms and solutions. The company has, however, not made any investments from the fund. In earlier media interactions, Infosys’ new chief executive, Vishal Sikka, had said he was keen on putting the fund to some use as soon as possible.

While Rao did not share details about the kind of start-ups Infosys was looking at, he said the company did have some gaps in capabilities around areas such as life sciences or health care. It might look to strengthen itself in these areas.

He also said they might look at strengthening its offerings or presence in certain places such as Japan or Latin America, through partnering with or acquiring of start-ups.

“Obviously, for us to scale organically in these areas will take time. So, we will always be continuously looking at acquisition in this space. It’s not that there are too many candidates. But we are always looking to acquire, to build capability or expand presence in these markets,” he said.