Bharti floats VC fund for telecom start-ups

Bharti Airtel has today floated a Rs 200-crore venture capital fund for supporting start-up companies in the telecom sector. Christened Airtel Innovation Fund, the initial corpus of the fund will come from internal accruals of the firm.

“This is essentially a seed-stage funding through which the ventures will be managed and run independently with a minority stake of Bharti Airtel in the company,” explained Manoj Kohli, CEO and joint managing director, Bharti Airtel. “Funding will be led and administered by Bharti Airtel and will be present in the company’s balance sheet,” he added.

Though the Airtel has not identified any companies, it is scouting for new innovations in software, application, content, platforms and hardware and networking. “We have not promised any kind of guarantee to the entrepreneurs for the adoption of their innovations or products, however we could consider them if they seem like a viable option. We have also not kept any condition of the first right of refusal for the products and innovations,” said Kohli.