Infosys announces $250-mn ‘Innovate in India Fund’ for Indian start-ups

Infosys has announced a $250 million (Rs1,550 crore) 'Innovate in India Fund' to support Indian startups. The fund will be excluively for investments in promising new Indian companies that will be inducted into the global ecosystem of strategic partners that Infosys is building.

The fund was announced by Vishal Sikka, chief executive officer and managing director in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

''Start-ups represent the vision, the hope and the persevering entrepreneurial spirit taking root in India. With the 'Innovate in India Fund', Infosys will invest in great Indian start-ups, help amplify their engineering and operations, as well as help bring their innovations to market at scale,'' said Sikka.

''Next-generation solutions built on emerging computing technologies, in innovative new ways, can dramatically reshape and improve the world around us. That's why, we look forward to working with innovative companies to strengthen our collective potential and also accelerate the success of the Prime Minister's 'Digital India' mission aimed at helping people gain benefits from the latest in information technology,'' he added.

Earlier, Infosys stated that it has expanded its Innovation Fund to $500 million to accelerate the creation of its worldwide ecosystem of innovation. The Fund will be used to invest in young companies innovating in next-generation solutions and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, pervasive connectedness as well as collaboration and design technologies.

The company is also developing its Mysore campus as a 'Smart City' by April 2015.

The company will also provide its expertise in the areas of smart infrastructure planning and sustainable building technology to the Ministry of Urban Development.

The concept of a smart and sustainable city is based on leveraging the power of data and the latest technologies in building and information technology to minimise energy and resource consumption, increase the use of renewable energy, and reduce and manage waste effectively.

The Infosys Mysore campus is spread over 350 acre, with 12 million square feet built up area and the capacity to host more than 15,000 trainees (residing on campus), more than 8,000 employees and several thousand contract workers.

''We, at Infosys, deeply believe that the digital revolution creates opportunities for us to reshape the world around us for the better and to improve quality of life. With our experience in computing technologies, and in managing urban spaces totalling over 2,600 acres, with a built-up area of 39 mn sq ft, all over India, our model ecosystem at Mysore will serve as a live, replicable example of smart city innovations that will harness all the advantages of digitisation,'' Sikka said.