The investment arm of Intel Corp, Intel Capital said on Wednesday that it will invest $23 million in three Indian companies in areas ranging from online marketing to education.
The investment comes as Intel’s revenues are lessening and the global credit crisis has made funding, even to relatively fast-growing countries like India, increasingly scarce.
The new investment will go to One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd., which provides value-added services like ring tones and games for mobile phones, IndiaMART.com, an online business-to-business marketplace, and Global Talent Track, a vocational educational institute.
Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, reduced fourth-quarter profit forecasts twice on flagging demand, and is now projecting a sales decline of more than 20 percent from the year-earlier period. The Santa Clara, California-based company is scheduled to report quarterly results 15 January.
Kuppam said Intel Capital invests, on average and excluding one-time large deals, about $500 million a year.
Funds will come from the $250 million Intel Capital India Technology Fund, which was established in December 2005 and has so far invested about 40% of its funds, Kuppam said.
Last year, Intel Capital invested about $50 million in 9 companies in India. That amounted to 8.5 percent of total funds committed globally, excluding a $1 billion investment in Clearwire Corp., an Internet provider specializing in a new type of wireless broadband technology called WiMax.
Intel Corp. employs about 3,000 people in India and opened its largest manufacturing site outside the United States in Bangalore, India, in 1998. Intel’s investments in India to date have been over $ 1.7 billion.
The company does not break down its revenues by country, but spokeswoman Saranya Rustagi said Intel has no plans to change the size of its work force in India as global demand gets smaller.