Intel Capital, the corporate strategic investment arm of chipmaker Intel Corp, has announced an investment in 123Greetings.com, an online greeting cards provider.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed
MUMBAI: Intel Capital, the corporate strategic investment arm of chipmaker Intel Corp, has announced an investment in 123Greetings.com, an online greeting cards provider.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We’ve been investing in India since 1998, and continue to invest in companies that will be beneficial to the corporate strategy of our parent, Intel Corporation,” said Sudheer Kumar Kuppam, managing director of Intel Capital for India, Japan, Australia New Zealand and South East Asia.
Elaborating, he said Intel Capital is stage, sector and instrument agnostic within the technology sector, and aims to invest in those companies that bring the public closer to technology.
“The more people adopt technology, the more will be the number of PC (personal computer) users. At the end of the day, that benefits Intel’s corporate strategy, which is to profit from the sale of more PCs,” he said. That philosophy marks the investment in 123Greetings.com, which has 200 million people using the website annually.
“The funds will be used to expand our presence to geographies outside the US, including India and China. Intel coming on board will also provide us a platform to explore synergies with its portfolio companies,” said Arvind Kajaria, founder of 123Greetings.com, which currently derives 95% of its $5 million in revenues from the United States.
Other recent investments by Intel Capital in India include the co-investment with Matrix Partners in Essel Group-promoted ItzCash, a multi-purpose pre-paid card, in ICICI Bank-groomed Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd, a technology solutions provider to the microfinance sector, and in Comcat, an e-governance solutions provider.
“We are very positive on the consumer internet space, which essentially means platforms that bring consumers to the internet to do commerce,” said Kuppam.
When asked whether broadband access would be a hindrance to the growth of consumer internet, he said: “India’s 2 million broadband subscribers is minuscule compared to China’s 140 million. But we feel it’s the right time to enter the space. If we wait for it to touch a critical mass of 50-100 million, then we might be too late.”
Another sector Intel Capital will be focused on is mobility, and anything to do with wireless. As a result, it will invest in WiMax, which, according to Kuppam, is the lowest cost technology available to make internet more accessible.
Enterprise software and hardware are other focus areas for this corporate venture capital arm of Intel, which has so far done more than 40 deals in India.
“We believe 2008 to be a much more fruitful year for Intel Capital in India,” said Kuppam, who did five deals in the country in 2007, and made 6 successful exits.
sanat_vallikappen@dnaindia.net
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