News
Networking giant to fund start-ups, train students, establish innovation labs.
Cisco announced late last week it will invest US$100 million (€88.68 million) in India.
The money will help to fund start-ups and innovation labs, as well as train students for careers in the technology sector.
"With our increased investments in education and innovation, we are harnessing the power of technology to launch a generation of problem solvers who will innovate like technologists, think like entrepreneurs and act as social change agents," said Cisco executive chairman and former CEO John Chambers, in a statement on Friday.
$40 million of Cisco’s money will go towards promoting early-stage and growth-stage companies focused on areas like cyber security, the cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), financial services, and healthcare, among others.
Cisco has also set a target of training 250,000 students for careers in technology by 2020.
In addition, the networking giant plans to open six innovation labs and three centres of expertise, and fund collaborations with universities, in order to give entrepreneurs, start-ups and researchers the opportunity and the infrastructure they need to develop their ideas into businesses.
"Innovation is an interdisciplinary exercise. No one organisation can address the challenges of digitisation on its own. Today’s announcement demonstrates Cisco’s ability to bring together customers, partners, start-ups and an entire ecosystem to work together to build businesses of tomorrow and innovate to help shape India’s success," said Irving Tan, president of Cisco Asia Pacific and Japan.
