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Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder and non-executive Vice-Chairman of Infosys, plans to become an angel investor.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a press conference to announce CII’s 10th India Innovation Summit, Gopalakrishnan said that he intends to invest in technology companies, which could involve software product companies. “Tech companies in marketing, digital and e-retailing are some of the hot areas,” he said.
Gopalakrishnan is still working on the kind of companies, quantum of investments and the kind of team that will look into identifying hot start-ups. “I am still debating that as I continue to be the non-executive Vice-Chairman for Infosys till October 10,” he said. However, he added that he will look to invest directly, rather than starting a fund for start-ups in India and will leverage the start-up network in Bangalore and Kerala.
Start-ups are upbeat about Gopalakrishnan’s decision to become an angel investor in core tech areas such as scientific computing or machine language processing and believe that his success would help mentor companies. According to Rajiv Kumar, founder of Manusis Technologies, one of the biggest advantages any tech start-up can get is the right mentorship to improvise products and make them more customer-centric. “While the start-up environment in India has been flourishing, one can notice a lack of investor enthusiasm in more fundamental computing endeavours,” added Manish Godha, Advaiya Solutions.
Gopalakrishnan is also actively involved in furthering the cause of science and technology.
His approach is different from that of his former colleague V Balakrishnan, who used to be CFO at Infosys. Balakrishnan is now with Exfinity, which is a part of Reservoir Investment Managers and focuses on Indian tech start-ups. It is promoted by IT industry leaders such as another former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai, former Wipro Joint CEO, Girish Paranjpe and former iFlex Solutions CEO, Deepak Ghaisas. According to Exfinity officials, the entity has raised ₹100 crore in its first round of funding and has plans to raise an additional ₹25 crore.
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