Sasken invests in tech VC firm

The company during the last quarter made an undisclosed investment in US-based technology venture capital firm OmniCapital. This venture fund is led by Arun Netravali, who was earlier president of Bell Laboratories, the place where path-breaking communication technologies took shape.

Sasken, chairman & managing director, Rajiv C Mody in a statement to their shareholders said: "Sasken has invested in OmniCapital, a US-based venture capital fund that provides early-stage funding for information technology companies in the US. The investment in OmniCapital augments Sasken's access to the US market, providing another window into the latest technology, industry developments and new markets in information technology, telecommunications, video and multimedia."

Mody goes on to state that the investment also provides opportunities for mutually-beneficial strategic partnership with OmniCapital portfolio companies.

Sasken, with its embedded communication solutions portfolio, has a sharp focus on the mobile devices/ handsets market and is making significant efforts to up its revenues from the product's business. Sasken presently generates around 10 per cent of its revenues from this vertical.

According to OmniCapital, it is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and management teams build the best next-generation communication and information technologies for rapidly-growing markets. OmniCapital invests in early-growth stage companies and has a special interest in working with corporate partners to create new companies.

This fund has advisors from some of the leading technology firms in the world and has also has Rajat Gupta, former head of McKinsey as one of them. This VC firm is understood to have made investments in four companies.

This is the second instance of Sasken taking a shot at the venture capital route in an effort to have a ring's eye view of the technology development. Prior to this investment in OmniCapital, Sasken along with IDG Ventures enabled floating of a firm, ConnectM in India, which develops remote monitoring and analytics solutions.