Former Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala joins Dallas Venture Partners

The fund will invest $300-500 million in India over the next 10 years. Neemuchwala and the venture fund will help the startups scale up through mentoring and funding to cater to the global market.

Former Wipro  Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abidali Neemuchwala joins as venture partner in Dallas Venture Partners (DVP), a fund that focuses on B2B early and growth-stage startups in India and Dallas, US.

The fund will invest $300-500 million in India over the next 10 years.

Neemuchwala, who took over as Wipro's CEO in 2016, resigned on January 30, 2020, a year before completing his five-year term in the Bengaluru-based firm citing "family commitments". He left the firm on June 1. He was succeeded by Capgemini executive Thierry Delaporte, who took over as CEO on July 6.

Talking about his move from heading $8 billion IT firm to being a venture partner, Neemuchwala said, “I have been really blessed. After a 28 year career in two amazing companies that were once startups when I started my career in 1992. I have learnt a great deal.”

The idea, Neemuchwala said, is to contribute back by nurturing similar startups in the area of software products, especially B2B products, and create unicorns.

India already has the talent, capital, and reputation. The aim, he said, is to bring all of this together as a venture partner in DVP by mentoring the startups and founders, and creating a roadmap for them to scale along with the DVP team.

“More importantly, to do something in the area of my expertise in both Dallas, and India, which is my motherland. That is the whole idea why I decided to become a part of DVP,” Neemuchwala explained.

Dayakar Puskoor, Managing Director, DVP, said, “We have already in the pipeline maybe 50-60 companies. But there are 5-6 companies that are really close and we will be able to invest. Hopefully, we will be able to announce soon.”

The fund will invest in 5-6 companies per year, he added.

DVP has already invested in 21 companies and will have an office in both Dallas and Hyderabad, India.

The scale of investments is $2-10 million in startups that are in area of cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning, AR/VR, and other emerging technologies. The focus will be on software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Globally SaaS market accounts for about $400 billion and in India, it accounts for about $4-$10 billion.

DVP will help these startups scale up from $1 million annual recurring revenue to $10 million. The venture fund, Neemuchwala said, will help these companies find the product-market fit, funding, and aid them in winning key clients in the US market, where these startups struggle.