Cisco to invest $3-5 million in Indian ‘enterprise SaaS’ start-ups
March 09, 2021
× Networking giant Cisco is looking to invest $3 million to $5 million in Indian enterprise SaaS start-ups for a minority stake. The company has a portfolio of about 10 start-ups that it has already invested in directly or through investment partnerships with VC funds.
Whatfix, Videonetics, Mobikwik, Mobstac and CloudCherry are some of the start-ups in its portfolio in India.
“Globally we invest about $100 million to $200 million every year, from Series A to late-stage growth investments. There is no specific allotment to India, because we don’t operate that way. India investments may ebb and flow according to the opportunities we see in the market and the strategy we want to execute. The sweet spot for our India investments would be in the $3 million to $5 million range” said Pankaj Mitra, Director and India Head, Cisco Investments & Acquisitions.
Sparklehood startup school: Empowering working professionals to become entrepreneurs ANI | Updated: Jan 06, 2021 11:02 IST
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], January 6 (ANI/BusinessWire India): IIM-Ahmedabad - Sparklehood is an online startup school for working professionals, which means it does not ask the founders in its cohort to quit their job until they have market validation.
It is sector and stage agnostic and it launched its first cohort with 18 startups on 22nd November.
Sparklehood founders, Anchal Taatya and Giulia Piona, wanted to create a program for those who have brilliant ideas on problems identified in their surroundings and willingness to solve them, but are stopped by family constraints, financial constraints, risk aversion, career risk, lack of motivation and accountability etc.