After giants like Tata and Infosys now the Aditya Birla group, one of the most esteemed companies in India wants to go shopping in Israel. The company recently announced that they are looking to fund innovative startups in Israel. This is not just an announcement, they have started working on this as well. They have deployed one of their highest ranking officers, Dev Bhattacharya, to evaluate and review about 500 hundred startups of Israeli origin for this very purpose specifically in the technology sector. Bhattacharya has three other top executives of the company with him, helping him make the assessment.
The 'Birla' name is very common in India, you could go to any street any corner and people will know about it. It has been in existence since 1857 and is still giving other companies a run for their money. They are a company valued at $41 billion and over 1,20,000 employees in over 40 nations across the world. Also, they haven't restricted themselves to just one or two sectors, they have their fingers in a lot of jars. And in almost all the fields they are at the very top of the game. With this move, they hope to get an edge over their competitors and improve their technology.
Once some startups are shortlisted they will be invited to visit India on an all expense paid trip to come and present their ideas in front of a group of companies with the aim of picking up funding. They have a program called Biz Labs, where startups are given an opportunity to show how their technology will benefit the company. Under this program, the startup gets access to the top level officials of the country and if they prove themselves to be good enough they might even be considered for a commercial arrangement with the group itself.
This is not the first time an Indian company has shown interest in Israeli-based tech startups. Last year itself, Infosys had acquired a startup by the name of Panaya ( a cloud tech firm) for about $200 million. Tata has also invested in a research centre called Tel Aviv University’s Technology Innovation Momentum Fund which develops new and innovative technologies. After these two companies now it is Aditya Birla Group's turn. This arrangement will help both, the Indian companies and the Israeli startups. An amalgamation of the resources of the companies will help the startup expand and grow and the technologies provided by the startups will help the company run better and improve their business.
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