Wipro picks up minority stake in Israeli cybersecurity firm for $1.5mn

Country's third largest software services firm Wipro has bought minority stake in Israeli cyber security company Intsights Cyber Intelligence for $1.5 million. Wipro, in a BSE filing, said,

The target entity (Intsights) is an early-stage company founded in 2015... Intsights offers a threat intelligence driven security platform employing cyber intelligence, rapid mitigation and one-click remediation.

Wipro has acquired a minority stake of less than 20 percent on a fully diluted basis in the Tel Aviv-headquartered firm for a cash consideration of $1.5 million, it added.

The Bengaluru-based company expects the transaction to be completed by August 31, 2016. In the past few quarters, Wipro has announced a string of investments, including acquisition of companies like HealthPlan Services ($460 million), Cellent of Germany (for $77 million) and US-based Viteos Group for $130 million. However, it later called off the buyout of US-based Viteos Group, citing inordinate delays in completion of closing conditions.

Wipro's net profit for the June quarter had declined 6.7 percent to Rs 2,059 crore, while its total income from operations rose 10.7 percent to Rs 13,697.6 crore from the year-ago period. Shares of Wipro closed 0.75 percent down at Rs 524.80 apiece on BSE.

Also read : A $19 trillion opportunity, Cisco, and the possibilities for startups

Few months back the firm joined multinationals names like Microsoft, IBM, and Target with its Startup Launchpad. The mission of this launchpad was to partner with startups to leverage their technology solutions in the market. According to Amit Phadnis, President, Engineering and India Site Leader, these could be both early as well as late-stage startups.

Amit believes that the next wave of technology will come through a ‘consortium’ approach to problem solving. A consortium approach essentially means that different ecosystems will come together, along with different stakeholders, to test technologies for a variety of use cases. The areas LaunchPad aimed to address include education, healthcare, manufacturing (following the industry 2.0 revolution), and smart cities along with adjacent solutions such as e-governance.