Half of US' top 50 venture-funded firms started by immigrants

Nearly half of America's top 50 venture-funded companies were started by immigrants and the most common country of origin for these founders was India, reveals a study by US National Foundation for American Policy.

The research by USNFAP, a non-profit, public policy research organisation, finds that 48 per cent, or 24 out of 50, of the US' top venture-funded companies had at least one immigrant founder and the most common country of origin for these immigrant founders was India, followed by Israel, Canada, Iran and New Zealand.

Other founders and co-founders were born in Italy, South Africa, Greece, Norway, Germany, the UK, Singapore, Switzerland and France.

The report further notes foreign-born and native-born talent creates a win-win situation that creates jobs and important innovations in America.

As per the report, immigrant founders have created an average of 150 jobs per company in the United States.

The research also found that 38 of the top 50 companies, or 76 per cent, employed one or more immigrants in a key management or product development position, demonstrating the important role played by foreign-born

personnel in these firms.

Among Indian founders whose names were mentioned in the report include Mayank Bawa of Aster Data Systems Inc, Aayush Phumbhra (Chegg), Samir Arora and Raj Narayan of Glam Media, Umesh Maheshwari and Varun Mehta (Nimble Storage Inc), Ajeet Rohatgi (Suniva Inc), Satish Palvai (Xactly Corp), RK Anand, Ashok Krishnamurthi and SK Vinod of Xsigo Systems Inc.

"Today's breakthrough companies are often founded by immigrants or at least employ a foreign-born scientist, engineer or CEO crucial to business growth and product development. Executives say access to talent from around the world is even more important to companies in their emerging growth phase," the report said.

The top 50 venture-funded companies, were selected and ranked in March 2011 by the research firm VentureSource and the rankings were based on factors such as company growth, successful track record of CEOs, founders and investors, and capital raised.