N Murthy sells Rs 177 cr Infy stock for VC fund

Nearly three decades after he co-founded Infosys Technologies with six others, N R Narayana Murthy has initiated the first step towards starting a venture capital (VC) fund focused on India. The Infosys Chairman, during the past two days, has offloaded 800,000 shares from his personal holding, to raise about Rs 177 crore.

Murthy joins the likes of his co-founder, N S Raghavan, and Wipro’s chairman, Azim Premji, who have set up private equity and VC funds ranging between $35 million and $1 billion.

Infosys, in a statement to the exchanges, also noted that after the offloading of shares, Murthy’s personal holding in Infosys has fallen to 0.41 per cent from 0.55 per cent. However, Murthy and his family members still control 4.83 per cent, valued at close to Rs 6,200 crore.

“Narayana Murthy has intimated the company that the proceeds of the sale will be used as seed capital for a proposed Venture Fund to be set up by him in India. The Fund will encourage and support young entrepreneurs having brilliant business ideas,” an Infosys statement said. It said the Fund would primarily invest in India, though it might consider investing overseas on a ‘case-to-case basis’.