Former Wipro CEO joins Dallas Venture Partners, envisions helping Indian startups go global

Dallas Venture Partners (DVP) on Monday said it will invest $300-500 million over the next 10 years in startups working in areas of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, and has onboarded former Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala as a venture partner.

Neemuchwala had quit as the chief executive officer and managing director of IT services major Wipro early this year.

DVP will focus on early-stage and growth-stage startups working on cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), mobile and emerging technologies. It intends to invest $2-10 million in startups that have already clocked $1 million in revenue and have the potential to scale up to $10 million.

Dayakar Puskoor will serve as the managing director of DVP.

"A majority of startups require a 'second act' during their growth stage. With deep technology expertise, industry knowledge, and market understanding, DVP will provide the much-needed momentum to startups identified through targeted and insightful diligence efforts," Puskoor said.

DVP, which has offices in Dallas in the US and Hyderabad, envisions helping Indian startups go global and create about $7-10 billion enterprise value in the 10 years.

It will provide extensive support to its portfolio companies through co-investments from Silicon Valley investors, participation in incubator and accelerator programmes, and networking opportunities at industry and business conferences.

"DVP gives me an opportunity to contribute back to both India and Dallas in my area of expertise, which is technology, and help create many more unicorns out of both these places," Neemuchwala said in a virtual briefing.

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He added that the spirit of bringing investors, startups, enterprise customers, and partners together to create an ecosystem where startups can thrive and go to the next level is what we intend to bring to Dallas and India.

He said India is already positioned among the top destinations of venture capital investment.

"A very small percentage of startups have been funded by venture capital and there is an opportunity to help more startup enterprises to be able to have access, especially in early stages, to this capital to grow and thrive and meet their objectives," he said adding that India is a "thriving hub" for innovation and technology.

Neemuchwala said Indian IT services industry did not limit itself to service India but expanded globally to serve requirements of customers across geographies.

"I think now that it is right for India to come up across as the global powerhouse for servicing in B2B SaaS (software-as-a-service), and that is what we see as a huge opportunity."

"So...my team can help the entrepreneurs to be able to devise a product roadmap that can help them create a great product market fit and take them to the next level of growth, which is $10 million," he said.