Tech Mahindra, the IT arm of Mahindra Group, expects two of its in-house startups to raise external funds by the end of 2016 as part of its plans to turn these entities into standalone companies.
“Saral Rozgar and Microgrid could raise external money by the end of this year. We have seen some interest from the Ontario State government to fund the microgrid startup but we have not taken any decision as yet,” CP Gurnani, CEO of Tech Mahindra, said.
Saral Rozgar is a blue collar jobs platform, while Microgrid allows people running smaller grids to calibrate energy usage.
Tech Mahindra has been building startups internally for the past five years under its intrapreneurship programme.
Gurnani said that additional funds will bring in greater operating rigour and helps these startups expand. Saral Rozgar plans to expand to West Asia and has said that it will raise external money to fund its growth.
Tech Mahindra’s internal startup programme runs in two batches and internal ideas that make the cut are mentored in-house for about 18 months to see if the idea has traction and can scale up, the company’s head of innovation Sirisha Voruganti said.
“In each batch about two ideas get the go-ahead. So it’s about four startups a year. Obviously, everyone can’t be working on internal startups, but we find it is a good way to help our employees who have ideas but may not have the risk appetite to go out and do it on their own,” Voruganti said.
Infosys has a $500 million fund to invest in startups, while Wipro has a $100 million fund. Tech Mahindra too expects to invest in external startups in the next year.
Source: The Economic Times
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
