NEEMUCHWALA JOINS DALLAS VENTURE PARTNERS
Abidali Neemuchwala, who quit as chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of IT services firm Wipro earlier this year, has joined Usbased Dallas Venture Partners (DVP) as a venture partner.
DVP also launched its operations in India. The firm said it plans to focus on early- and growth-stage companies in areas, such as Cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and mobile.
As a venture partner, DVP said Neemuchwala will bring deep technology expertise and invaluable experience of building businesses. It said his understanding of the Indian market will be an asset for both DVP as well as the start-ups backed by the firm.
“I’m happy to be a part of DVP, which is focused on Dallas, Texas, which is my adopted home, and India, which is my motherland. And it gives me an opportunity to contribute back to both these places in an area of my expertise, which is ‘technology’ and help create many more unicorns,” said Neemuchwala.
He added, “We always ask when India will have the next Google. We now have about 20-30 unicorns coming out of India already. India is going to become a thriving hub for innovation and technology. All of this has been possible, not only because of the entrepreneurial spirit of Indians but also because of the supportive government policies.”
Neemuchwala said the time is right for Indian start-ups to be known as the global powerhouse in the area of business-tobusiness software-as-a-service.
He said DVP would be adding value to companies which have already crossed $1 million revenue and are ready to reach $10 million. “I, along with my team, can help them. This team has huge operating experience. We can handhold entrepreneurs to devise and refine the product road map and take them to the next level of growth,” said Neemuchwala. Dayakar Puskoor, a serial entrepreneur with a track record of successful investments, will serve as managing director of DVP. The firm plans to make investments in the range of $2 million and $10 million in early- and growth-stage companies.