Early stage VC firm Stellaris Venture Partners raises funds from Cisco Investment
Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm focussed on technology, has raised funding from Cisco Investments, an arm of technology conglomerate Cisco. This investment makes Cisco Investments an LP (limited partner) in Stellaris. The funding amount is undisclosed.
Reports in newspapers Mint and The Times of India suggest Stellaris is looking to raise close to $100 million in its Fund I. Commenting on the investment, Alok Goyal, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners said the team is excited to partner with Cisco, and is looking forward to tapping into its deep tech expertise, and global market reach for the benefit of Stellaris’ portfolio companies.
He said in the press statement:
“Over the last three decades, India has created an exceptional talent pool for technology products, which is leading to the creation of globally competitive software product companies.”
Stellaris started investing in early 2017, and has made investments in supply chain buinesses, global SaaS companies, collaboration and communication software and machine learning. Early last year, Stellaris had closed around $50 million and has backed the likes of mfine, a healthtech platform, Noticeboard, a communications platform, and Wydr, a B2B e-commerce platform.
The firm typically focusses on transformative technology businesses in sectors including core enterprise technologies such as cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, enterprise applications, and analytics. The fund also invests in startups, both consumer and business-centric, that solve large India-specific problems using technology. The fund is partnered by Alok Goyal, Rahul Chowdhri, and Ritesh Banglani.
Sameer Garde, President Cisco India and SAARC said in a press statement:
“Cisco is committed to India’s next phase of digital transformation through strategic investments in the country’s innovation ecosystem. We are supporting all stages of start-up development, including directly and indirectly funding the most promising new digital companies across India.”
It is that time of the year when investment firms are raising funds. Last week, early-stage VC firm 3one4 Capital raised its Fund II, which had an initial target corpus of Rs 150 crore that was fully subscribed within a quarter of the fundraise initiated in 2017. 3one4 Capital intends to invest fund raised in B2B sector - in fintech, edtech, and healthcare, among others.
Blume Ventures, another early-stage VC firm is set to raise $80million -$100 million by the end of the first quarter of 2018. This fund raise will be Blume’s third fundraise.