Infosys doubles down on startups; announces incubator, invests in Airviz

BENGALURU: IT major Infosys is doubling down on startups and early stage companies. On Friday, it set aside half of its $500 million Innovation fund to focus exclusively on new Indian companies, launched a startup incubator and announced its latest early stage investment.

“These companies will be inducted into the global ecosystem of strategic partners that we are building,” Infosys said in a statement. Infosys said it hopes to have the first pick of new innovations from the incubator to market and scale.

The company also announced that it will invest $2 million in Airviz, a personal air quality monitoring startup from the Carnegie Mellon University.

“This investment was made out of the $ 500 million Innovation Fund earmarked for investments in disruptive new technologies,” the company said in a statement.

The startup, a spin off from Carnegie Mellon University, can be used to tell the amount of fine particulate matter in the air so people can monitor air quality and guard against heart and lung diseases.