Infosys to invest Rs 31.6cr in Stellaris Venture Partners

Infosys has announced that it will invest Rs 31.6 crore in Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage venture fund. “The investment is towards the first close of Stellaris’ fund and will be made by December 15,” the IT firm said in a regulatory filing with the BSE.

Backed by Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture capital firm Vertex Ventures, the investment will be made from the $500 million Infosys Innovation Fund. Infosys set up Innovation Fund in 2015, with an aim to invest in early stage start-ups specialized in areas like AI, big data, cloud computing among others.

Founded by Alok Goyal, Ritesh Banglani, and Rahul Chowdhri, Stellaris aims to back entrepreneurs building applications for global businesses, Indian small enterprises, and consumer-focused firms in verticals such as financial services, retail, healthcare, and education.

Alok Goyal said, "India has a vibrant technology startup ecosystem today that has the potential to create breakthrough companies on a global scale. We are very excited to partner with Infosys, whose deep technology expertise, understanding of global enterprises, and worldwide footprint can be immensely valuable to the investment team as well as Stellaris’ portfolio companies."

Infosys had made an investment of Danish krone (DKK) 149,20,000 (about $2.1 million) in Danish startup UNSILO from its Innovation Fund. Infosys has also invested in Vertex Partners, a US-based VC firm.

Infosys’ investment in Stellaris is expected to be completed by 15 December 2016.