Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys co-founder and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy, has sold shares worth Rs 430 crore or $92 million to back her husband’s plan to raise a venture capital fund. So, the fund corpus, as of now, is $129 million.
In 1981, it was Sudha Murthy’s savings of Rs 10,000 that was a big contribution to the Infosys story.
Filing made with exchanges show that Sudha Murthy sold 2 million shares, which amounts to a little less than a quarter of her holding of 1.62%. Last month, Murthy, India's IT services industry icon, sold shares worth Rs 174.3 crore ($37 million) to set up an early stage VC fund Catamaran. India's second-largest software exporter has said that Murthys do not plan any more stake sales for the fund.
As of September end, Murthy held a 0.55% stake in Infosys while his family held another 4.42% stake in India's second-largest IT services provider.
In the same filing made to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Infosys said that S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD of Infosys, has bought 4 lakh shares in the firm for Rs 86.6 crore. Gopalakrishnan and his family hold a 3.34% stake in Infosys.
"The Venture Capital Fund will encourage and support young entrepreneurs having brilliant business ideas. The Fund will primarily invest in India and may on a case-to-case basis consider investing overseas," an earlier statement had said. The VC fund will look at areas like healthcare, retail, technology with early stage investments.
