More good news for Indian entrepreneurs! Infosys co-founder and chairman N. R. Narayana Murthy’s new VC firm, now called Catamaran Venture Fund, just added a whole lot more money to its coffers. A few weeks ago, we reported that Murthy was turning to “the dark side” after selling a large amount of company shares in order to set up a venture capital firm. To set up the fund, Murthy reportedly sold 800,000 shares, or 0.13 percent of the company, its total value converting to $38.7 million, more or less.
It appears that Murthy’s wife, Sudha Murthy, who reportedly put up the seed funding for Infosys Technologies at its founding 30 years ago, has sold 2 million shares worth of her Infosys stock, worth roughly $91 million dollars. And Sudha sold 22 percent of her personal holding to fund her husband’s new VC fund.
The Catamaran Venture Fund will have a total of around $130 million dollars to invest with and will focus on early stage and angel investing. As we wrote in our past report, Murthy aims to invest mainly in ‘brilliant’ Indian entrepreneurs who found startups that operate in the areas of healthcare, education and nutrition, which may include technology-related companies.
Murthy started Infosys with six others back in 1981 by borrowing INR 10,000 (roughly $215 today) from wife Sudha. Infosys went public 12 years after its original founding and its share increased three thousandfold over the next 15 years or so. While Catamaran’s fund is still small compared to the war chests of other VC firms like Battery Ventures and Sequoia Capital, it still has the potential to make some very meaningful investments.
Photo credit/Flickr
(Thanks for the tip, Jason)
That’s incredible. Is this fund largely meant for startups in India?
(BTW, what’s the image about?)
that must be rich man’s catamaran…:)
Talking of rich man’s cataraman …. for the records, Murthy still lives in the same 2-bedroom house he moved in before Infosys took off (A wonderful article by his wife is here: http://www.docs...NARAYANA-MURTHY)
Very nice article., thanks for sharing.
Where is the fund based out off? Silicon valley? India? Are they starting to talk with entrepreneurs? Any other partners involved other than Murthy?
i need to find me a wife like that.
+1
Who’d lend you $215? uh?
Would get one this dedicated only in India, my friend!
Meaningful investments are like needles in haystacks. The integration of web,context and mobile will be unfathomable. Context is king and begins with location.
They see the future ahead.
“Murthy aims to invest mainly in ‘brilliant’ Indian entrepreneurs who found startups that operate in the areas of healthcare, education and nutrition, which may include technology-related companies.”
According to a report on Times Of India, a national daily in India, I think Murthy has revised his initial statement. He now says that the fund will invest in a variety of fields and “not limit itself to retail or hi-tech”.
It doesn’t matter where Murthy is investing. But it matters that ‘Murthy is investing’ and that says a lot about Indian startup ecosystem.
He saw it coming, back in 80’s and now again he’s ready to repeat that feat with Indian Entrepreneurs.
good news
i m not sure whether infosys will like to see an entrepreneur funded by this venture capital 2 challenge them in 10 years.
That’s a very smart thing to do. Build your own country technologies and be the first one to fund at seed level!
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