MUMBAI :
Bangalore based information technology service provider Infosys, said in a statement to the exchanges, that it has divested it’s stake in Denmark based startup UNSILO for $8,00,000 million (Approximately ₹5.7 crore)
“With regard to the minority investment made by the Company during 2016 in Unsilo A/S the Company announces that it has, on January 28, 2020, completed the divestment of its shares in Unsilo A/S for a total consideration of approximately $ 0.8 million,” noted the company statement.
The company had invested in UNSILO in 2016 for a little over DKK 14,920,000 (approximately ₹14.5 crore) from its $500 million innovation fund.
UNSILO is an artificial intelligence startup focused on advanced text analysis. UNSILO uses a combination of machine-learning and natural language processing to analyze large quantities of text and improve the speed and effectiveness of knowledge workers across many industries. Infosys spokespersons did not comment on queries regarding the decision.
The fund was set up in 2013 with a corpus of $100 million for start-ups and other innovative businesses outside the company. The size of the fund was expanded to $500 million in January 2015.
The company had invested in a dozen start-ups, including Stellaris Venture Partners, Unsilo, Trifacta, Whoop and TidalScale using the fund but currently lists only eight investments excluding UNSILO. However, during 2017-18 the fund lost some of its key founding members during the senior management churn following former CEO Vishal Sikka’s resignation. In 2018, Infosys divested its investment in OnMobile Systems Inc for $2.49 million.
The most recent investment announced by the fund was in 2019 when Infosys said it would invest $10 million (nearly ₹70 crore) in California-based artificial intelligence-focused The House Fund II.
Meanwhile earlier in the month IT service peer Wipro’s investment arm, Wipro Ventures said it has raised its Fund II, of $150 million, which will invest in early to mid-stage companies building innovative enterprise software solutions in areas such as cyber security, application development, analytics, cloud infrastructure, test automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Wipro Ventures launched its first fund of $100 million in 2015.
Source: Livemint
