Tech-Focussed VC Fund Stellaris Gets Backing From Cisco Investments

Bengaluru-based VC firm Stellaris Venture Partners has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Cisco Investments. Cisco Investments is the corporate venture capital arm of Cisco and offers direct and fund of funds investment.

With backing from Cisco, the VC firm plans to invest in about 18-20 tech startups.

Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India stated in a media statement, “We are supporting all stages of startup development, including directly and indirectly funding the most promising new digital companies across India. With a strong leadership team and extensive enterprise technology expertise, we are pleased to add Stellaris Ventures to our growing portfolio of investments in India.”

An early-stage startup focussed fund, Stellaris Venture was founded in 2016 by Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal, and Rahul Chowdhri, all former Helion Venture Partners executives. The VC firm invests in global SaaS, applications for Indian small and mid-sized business (SMBs) and consumers in large verticals such as healthcare, education, financial services, and retail.

Stellaris has also raised funds earlier. In November 2016, Stellaris Venture Partners received $4.6 Mn ( INR 31.6 Cr) from Indian IT major Infosys. Later, in February 2017, the company completed the first close of its $100 Mn maiden fund. Also, in May 2017, Stellaris Venture Partners raised $10 Mn from investment firm International Financial Corporation(IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

This also created a network of nearly 50 entrepreneurs and business professionals for Stellaris Venture, who planned to identify promising investments, advise the portfolio and selectively co-invest with the fund.

Members of the network include Taxiforsure co-founders Aprameya R and Raghunandan G; Indify founder Alok Mittal; Capillary Technologies founder Aneesh Reddy; Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Helion and Fireside Ventures; and Neeraj Agarwal, India Head of the Boston Consulting Group.

The VC firm initiated startup investments In 2017 and so far have participated in the funding rounds of startups such as mobile B2B marketplace Wydr (January 2017), Whatfix ($3.69 Mn, April 2017), Noticeboard ($1.2 Mn, July 2017), Mfine ($1.5 Mn, September 2017) amongst others.

Although the amount of fund raised from Cisco is undisclosed yet, with Stellaris aiming to invest in 18-20 startups, it’s a deal alert for the Indian early-stage tech startups. Which new startups will now get added to the VC firm’s portfolio, will only be unveiled with time.

[The development was reported by Livemint]