Having already invested $100 million in companies with significant operations in India over the last three years, Clearstone Venture Partners has now fielded its entire top team in the country to look for venues for investing $250 million it has in its kitty.
"We have so far invested $100 million in 14 technology and communications companies in the US which have huge operations and development centres in India. We will invest an additional $70 million in those companies," Bill Elkus, founder and managing director of Clearstone, said.
"Most of the $250 million will go to companies based in California. In the last two to three years more than 90 per cent of the companies we have invested in have considerable presence in India. Our partnership with India has been successful so far," he said.
In its recent visit to India, Clearstone team met up with 50 Indian start-up companies in hardware, communications and software space. "Of the companies we have met, around 20 per cent seem interesting enough to invest in," Elkus said.
Despite investing in Indian companies Clearstone would prefer them to have a strong base in the US. "We provide considerable hand holding to the firms we invest in. If they have good enough presence in the US, it will help us. Even the customers they would like to tap are in the US," he said.
Apart from meeting potential investment targets, Clearstone team interacted with a large number of players in the technology business.