Wipro Ventures raises $150-million fund

Wipro Ventures, the investment arm of the Bengaluru-based IT major on Thursday said that it has raised $150 million for its Fund II. The second fund will invest in early to mid-stage companies building enterprise software solutions in areas such as cybersecurity, application development, analytics, cloud infrastructure, test automation, and artificial intelligence (AI).

The software-services company launched its first $100 million fund in 2015 to invest in early to mid-stage companies in the enterprise-software space.

“Wipro Ventures has become an integral part of our innovation ecosystem,” said Abidali Z. Neemuchwala, CEO and managing director, Wipro Limited.

“Our strategy has been to invest in promising enterprise software startups, establish strategic partnerships with them and bring their leading-edge solutions to our customers. By doing this, we differentiate our customer services, generate revenue for our portfolio companies and deliver strategic as well as financial returns to Wipro. Wipro Ventures’ Fund II demonstrates our continued commitment to this strategy,” Neemuchwala added.

Wipro Ventures, managed by Biplab Adhya and Venu Pemmaraju, has so far invested in 16 early to mid-stage startups, including 11 in the U.S., four in Israel, and one in India. “More than 100 of Wipro’s global customers have benefited by deploying solutions from these portfolio companies,” the IT firm said in a statement.

Wipro points out that companies within the portfolio have seen successful exits, including Demisto, a cybersecurity company that was acquired by Palo Alto Networks. Rishi Bhargava, co-founder, Demisto, credited Wipro’s commitment to joint sales and go-to-market support, as one of the key drivers of its success

“Within the first year of our partnership, Wipro and Demisto were working together on dozens of Fortune 1000 opportunities and closing a majority of them,” said Bhargava. “It is exciting to see Wipro Ventures continue to enhance the startup ecosystem with new capital while helping companies boost their bottom line.”

In addition to making direct equity investments, Wipro Ventures has also invested in five early stage enterprise focused venture funds in Israel, New York, and Los Angeles.

Earlier this week, Wipro reported a 1.8% growth in revenue in dollar terms in the December quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter, helped by outsourcing demand among clients across business verticals and geographies. During the October-December stretch, Wipro’s IT services revenue stood at $2,094.8 million on a constant currency basis.

However, consolidated net profit fell 2.17% year-on-year in rupee terms. Wipro posted a profit of ₹2,455.9 crore compared to ₹2,510.4 crore, a year ago. In rupee terms, Wipro’s gross revenue stood at ₹15,470.5 crore, up 2.73% year-on-year.