India’s IT expenditure is still at $20 billion, compared with IT spend of $500 billion in the US. Tech entrepreneurs in India have major challenges. The challenge as an investor is about having the right domain skills across different industry sectors.Īs a long-term technology inve-stor, how do you view India’s technology product space? For example, investing in technology and investing in pharma are two different things. And, from an investor perspective, growth stage companies offer the chance of relatively quick exits compared with early stage firms, where we have to remain invested for longer, sometimes six- seven years.Īctually, what we worry about is domain skills.
How will you manage a dual investing portfolio looking at both early stage and growth investing that require different focus ?Įarly stage companies require investor attention, but growth companies do not require as much work, it is more capital. Segments like energy grid management, energy efficiency solutions, smart grids and managing data centres are all areas that we will look Clean technology is another major focus area. Typically, these are not venture capital plays. Innovations for the bottom of the pyramid are really about large volumes. Yes, we will look at the micro-finance sector as part of the BFSI focus. So, will you invest in India’s micro-finance sector? Or in companies that address markets at the bottom of the pyramid? What are the main trends in investing in 2010, as firms try to recover momentum lost due to the global slowdown in the past year? In an exclusive conversation with Archana Rai, he explained why growing inflation in the country will spur new development as companies increasingly use technology to increase productivity and offset rising costs. More such investments are on the anvil, said Mr Haque, who lists clean technology, India’s booming micro-finance sector and capital intensive businesses, such as roads and ports, as the focus area for the firm’s private equity portfolio in India. NVP has also co-invested in a $425-million investment round in Asian Genco, a Singapore- based infrastructure firm that builds power plants and has engineering services businesses in India. Earlier on Wednesday, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), the 49-year-old investment firm, in which Mr Haque is a managing partner, made the lead investment in a $6-million round of funding in internet classifieds company Quikr.
PROMOD HAQUE SOFTWARE
In India, Promod Haque has led investments in over half-a-dozen India-based start-ups, including software product company Persistent Systems, travel portal Yatra, classifieds company Sulekha and Appnomic Systems. He is one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalists finding mention in the Forbes Midas List of top investors for nine years in succession.
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