The Hindu : Business : IDG Ventures to fund startup companies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 14, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Business

Business

IDG Ventures to fund startup companies

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: G. R. N. SOMASHEKAR

LENDING A HELPING HAND: (from left) S. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT, Bangalore, Rajan Anandan, MD, Microsoft India, Bringi Dev, Executive Director, TiE, and Sudhir Sethi, CMD, IDG Ventures India, at a press conference in Bangalore on Friday.

BANGALORE: Microsoft India and IDG Ventures India on Friday announced an early stage funding programme for technology startups.

While IDG has a Rs. 100-crore corpus, Microsoft will provide free software package, which startup companies can use. Studies showed that up to six per cent of capital cost of a new venture is from acquiring the necessary software.

IDG Ventures India Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Sethi said that despite the economic slowdown, sectors like business intelligence, security, mobile applications, defence, aerospace and avionics were expanding and looked for reliable partners. The domestic software products market alone was forecast to grow to $12-15 billion by 2015. Young companies venturing into these areas would be funded by IDG. “Most young companies funded by us are now hiring and growing,” he added.

Microsoft India Managing Director Rajan Anandan said many major IT organisations were started during downturns and were now thriving. “Technology startups which can serve education, healthcare or cloud computing sectors have good prospects. The Microsoft’s BizSpark programme anticipates the multiplier effects of the number of startups growing over the next few years,” he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section