Cisco Investments bullish on Indian tech companies

This will be made at various stages across different verticals.
It has already invested more than $100 million in major verticals like Broadband, Media & Entertainment and Web 2.0 technologies. Cisco India team may look at more opportunities for growth and will focus on investing in technology areas that supports Cisco products and services.

Cisco Investments & Acquisitions Managing Director Joydeep Bose said, “We would like to invest in companies that are strategically important for us. Our focus is not only on telecom and networking, we are open and flexible. Cisco is looking at diversification and wants to become a 100 billion dollar company.”

Adopting the strategy of developing and growing the local market Cisco intends to grow the pie of the telecom industry through which it can tap and leverage its presence in the country. It is very keen on acquiring stakes in  companies that can become a partners for its technologies. “We think that partnering with Indian companies can create new business model that can be used globally for growth” he added.  The globalisation centre in Bangalore, will be driving its investment and acquisition strategy for Asia pacific and middle east region. With a corpus of $100 million the company also plans to invest in niche areas like education and data center services within 24 months. “$100 million out of the corpus of $200 million announced by our Chief Executive Officer John Chambers in 2006, has been invested. Given the market conditions and deal flows, we expect to invest more,” he added. While, direct investments will be in companies those make a direct impact on Cisco’s business, indirect investment will be partner investing of a fund raised by a third party.The investment in small companies will act as a sort of validation of their business model and it would also provide them a leadership bandwidth. Though it sees potential in rural markets it has no plans to invest in Tier II and III cities.  It has invested in 25 companies including India Games, Real Image, Secureview, Nimbus.