This will be a huge diversification for a company, which has traditionally been investing in information technology and communication services industry.
NVP is targeting to invest $ 400-500 million in the country over the next five years, said industry sources.
"We are already in talks with a number of start-ups in the area of pharma and biotechnology in India. NVP also has plans to invest in the automobile and the auto component segments in the country. Along with IT, pharma and auto components are the sectors to watch out for," said Vab Goel, partner, NVP.
Norwest Venture will essentially invest in potential ideas that do not involve huge investments in infrastructure and utilise modern technologies such as the internet and mobile phones to communicate with clients, said Goel.
NVP has so far made investment in a Pune-based IT company, Persistent Systems. Last week, the company committed investments in a travel portal, yatraonline, to be operational in 2005.
Yatraonline will provide domestic travellers with comprehensive travel-related information. The portal will have two call centres manned by 150 employees, he said.
"We believe in putting money in high risk-high reward kind of a set up, where the investment is to the tune of $ 10-50 million, however, the returns should be in the range of $ 1-7 billion," said Goel.
In another five years, there will be players among top 10 companies by revenue, who have been unheard of today.
These companies would be non-infrastructure and non-IT companies, he said.
NVP currently manages wealth to the tune of $ 1.8 billion. It has funded more than 350 companies during the last four decades.
The venture capital firm has got support from Wells Fargo, which is the fifth largest bank in the world with an asset base of $ 435 billion, said Goel.
Pramod Haque was voted as the world's number one venture capitalist in 2004.
The domestic pharmaceutical industry is worth Rs 50,000 crore and is growing at 8 per cent a year. Venture capitalists and financial institutions such as New Vernon Pvt Equity, Citi Corp and CLSA have picked up stakes in local pharma companies and CROs (contract research organisations).
With the auto industry booming, Indian auto component firms are, of late, going global. In the last one year alone, the sector, including major player Bharat Forge, has made over 12 acquisitions overseas.
