Intel Capital funnels money into Indian firms

THE LONG ARM of Intel investment, Intel Capital, has reached out to India, saying it will channel $23 million into three local firms.

One97 Communications, dealing in ringtones and games for mobile phones, IndiaMART.com, an online marketing venture doing business-to-business deals and Global Talent Track, a vocational educational institute, are the lucky recipients of the Intel dosh, which comes credit crunch be damned.

The world economic crisis has squeezed India tightly, as big international firms find they have less and less money to invest, even in the developing world, so this latest Intel investment will be most welcome indeed.

But Intel's revenues, too, have seen better days, with Chipzilla admitting it has had to revise fourth-quarter profit predictions as the global market continues to stagnate. The Chip Giant reckons its sales are down 20 per cent on the same period last year, a fact which will be confirmed later today when quarterly results are made public.

The funds for this particular investment, however, are being pumped in from Intel Capital's India Technology Fund, which has a kitty of about $250 million, of which about 40 per cent has already been invested. To date, Chipzilla has invested a whopping $1.7 billion in India.

In 2008, Intel Capital threw some $50 million in spare change at nine Indian companies, amounting to some 8.5 per cent of its 'spread-the-Intel-love-globally' funds.

That amount did not include the $1 billion investment made in Internet provider Clearwire for setting up US Wimax.

The investment also underscores Intel's massive commitment to India where it employs some 3,000 people and operates its largest manufacturing site outside the US in Bangalore. µ