SAP Ventures to help Indian entrepreneurs

SAP has announced the addition of SAP Ventures in India, which has now decided to make an India-focused investment. Das noted, "They will be helping entrepreneurs in India." Directly investing in India, SAP Ventures will foster and nurture innovation in India. It will help Indian companies build fast-growing companies with a global footprint.

Investing in India became a priority for SAP Ventures, as India is among the fastest growing economies and has a large talent pool at the forefront of a technological revolution.

SAP Ventures has been investing in innovative and early-stage companies. It is likely to target enterprise, enterprise IT companies, etc., in India. It is also likely to target the retail segment as well. Das noted: "Retail is a very important segment for us. We have had a lot of success in retail. The Indian retail segment is highly unorganized -- only 3-4 percent is organized. Within that, all are in SAP."

SAP Ventures is looking at about a dozen Indian companies, and will likely close on three or four. The company invests out of the SAP balance sheet, and there's no fund as such. "We get inputs from people on the ground, and then take a decision. SAP Ventures has been investing since 1997, and has so far invested in 38-39 companies. As for India, as mentioned earlier, it is looking to close some deals within the next three to six months. Generally, a deal size is said to be close to $4-5 million.

SAP in other areas

Commenting on the topic of looking at the franchise segment, McDermott added: "The franchisees in the US are all standardized on SAP. It will be the same here in India, as the market gets organized."

With regard to SAP's focus on the emerging markets, Das said, "We also support the Sri Lanka region, which has several customers. McDermott added: "The BRIC countries, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and even Colombia are all fast moving regions. We are focusing much more on BRIC and all the other such emerging markets." He added that customers had been switching to SAP in great numbers.

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