Venture Capital: What to Keep in Mind When seeking an Investor?

Last week, I had the honor of speaking on the panel at ACG Silicon Valley’s C-Circle event Venture Capital: What to Expect in 2018 in Palo Alto, California. The event focused on a range of topics including funding trends, corporate venture activity and emerging technologies from Blockchain to Conversational Interfaces.

Emerging technologies are rapidly transforming industries around the globe and in turn driving a massive shift in technology consumption patterns for corporations. For startups in the Enterprise Software space, it is imperative that they choose investors who can help them navigate the same as part of their growth journey.

An entrepreneur should keep the following points in mind when evaluating corporate/strategic investors for an upcoming round:

Know your objectives and expectations as well as those of your potential investor
Understand an investor's decision-making process - will they support you through different rounds of financing and the "crests and troughs" that are inevitable in a startup's journey.
Will an investment from the strategic investor come with restrictive covenants that may limit or hinder future alliances or exit potential?

The most important step towards picking a suitable investor is identifying your own needs, goals and objectives, both now and in the future. Once you have clearly thought through your goals and needs, you can begin to identify which investors are best suited to help.

At Wipro Ventures, we seek to help our portfolio companies in the following manner:

Go-To-Market support and access to Fortune 1000 customers. Wipro has built long-lasting relationships with some the largest and most successful firms across the globe.
Global Reach. With Wipro's broad reach and presence in six continents, startups get exposure to markets across the globe.
End-to-End Solutions. Portfolio company offerings become an integral part of Wipro's best-in-breed solutions.
Domain and Market Expertise to help shape product roadmap. Wipro has 55+ "Centers of Excellence" dedicated to developing and understanding emerging technologies.

About the Author

Biplab is a Managing Partner at Wipro Ventures and serves as a board observer for Altizon Systems, Demisto, IntSights and Tricentis.

Prior to this position, Biplab held several operating roles, primarily in the enterprise applications services domain at Wipro, Genpact, and PwC. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from IIT Kharagpur, and an MBA with concentration in finance and systems from IIM Bangalore, India. He is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt and a Kauffman Fellow.

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