Infosys sets aside $100 mn innovation fund for products, platform

The company will invest in ideas which are in line with Infosys 3.0 strategy

In a move to give a fillip to its products and platform business India’s second largest company Infosys Limited has formed a special innovation fund of about $100 million.

The company said the money will be used to fund ideas of people within the organisation or outside which are in line with the company’s strategy of Infosys 3.0.

The Bangalore-based company had earlier announced its new strategy of Infosys 3.0 wherein it will focus more on IP related products, platforms and solutions (PPS) business. The company had also identified 7 areas in each products and platform business which it will focus.

Commenting on the new innovation fund S D Shibulal CEO and managing director of Infosys said, “We need to increase our share from the product, platform and solution business. Infosys is a company which employs many innovative people and some of these ideas cannot be expandable within our premises. There are also some areas which we don’t work so if an idea comes it makes sense that pick that idea and invest some money in it and spin it off.”

At present PPS business contributes only round 5.7% of the company’s overall revenue.

Apart from investing the ideas originated within the company and spinning it off into a new solution, Infosys is also planning to invest in external companies and projects and IP-related products and platforms in-line with its 3.0 strategy.

“There are always options in technology wherein you can invest money in technology developed by an external person. We will invest in these ideas which can be capitalised or rolled back into Infosys. These are series of decision which we are taking to execute our 3.0 strategy," he added.

During the fourth quarter, the company has applied for 21 patent applications in India and the US. With this, Infosys has 532 patent applications undergoing various stages of patent prosecution in India, the US and other jurisdictions. The company also said 84 patents were granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and three patents by the Luxembourg patent office.

The company has already launched Flypp a white-labeled app marketplace product and platforms like Infosys BigDataEdge, Infosys CommerceEdge, Infosys WalletEdge among others.