Indian IT sector to set up US$18.5 million fund to promote firms

New Delhi, Dec 6 (Asia Pulse) - Chief executives of Aptech, Zenith, IIS Infotech and Cisco India and others in the information technology sector will set up a Rs800 million (US$18.47 million) venture capital fund to promote Indian software and e-commerce start-ups.

The Infinity Venture Capital Fund, first of its kind in India, is being promoted by 30 entrepreneurs, including Arun Seth of British Telecom, Anil Batra of Cisco India, Satish Kaura of Samtel, Saurabh Srivastava of IIS Infotech Atul Nishad of Aptech, Rohit Chand of IT&T and Raj Saraf of Zenith.

The fund, to be launched by the end of December, will also bring together 10 entrepreneurs of Indian origin from the Mecca of software development, Silicon Valley, including the former promoter of Exodus Kanwal Rekhi. "We intend to invest Rs800 million in 20 companies by mid-2001.

To start with, the fund would eye Indian start-ups focusing on Internet solutions, software products, software services, and IT enabled services," Srivastava said. About 80 per cent of the funds would be invested in seed companies and the balance in companies staging an expansion, Srivastava said.