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    John Chambers sets up plans take Indian startups global

    Synopsis

    Recently, Lucideus entered into an agreement with the Bombay Stock Exchange to secure the bourse’s over 1,000 brokers from cybersecurity risks.

    john-chambersET Online
    John Chambers said while entering in the highly competitive US market, startups will need navigators like him or other US-based investors or companies.
    AHMEDABAD: John Chambers, chairman emeritus of Cisco and founder of JC2 Ventures, believes that Indian startups and entrepreneurs have great potential, but they need a different approach to take their businesses to the global market.

    One way to do this, he said, is through the US; because the tests they will face to survive in the highly competitive and mature market will make them tough and if it works in the American market, it will work anywhere in the world. He told ET in an exclusive interaction.

    Chambers was in Ahmedabad to attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2019.

    Out of the 18 startups that Chambers has invested, two are Indian: Lucideus and Uniphore — the rest are US-based. After he made investments in the Indian startups, he took both to the US market under his mentorship. His experiment seems to have worked and both startups are growing at around 300% after they moved to the US. Uniphore has touched around $9 million in revenue and Lucideus, around $3 million, he said.
    Recently, Lucideus entered into an agreement with the Bombay Stock Exchange to secure the bourse’s over 1,000 brokers from cybersecurity risks.

    “Startups that are a bit matured and have some base here in India, those startups I intend to take to the US market,” said Chambers.

    Chambers, who is also chairman of the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), said the forum will collaborate with Ahmedabad-based technology incubator iCreate to help local startups connect with Fortune 500 companies and individual investors in the US.

    “One of the core goals of this relationship is to take Indian startups, when they are market-ready and product-solid, to the US market, by virtue of introducing them to USISPF member-companies and their leadership investors. They will look at products or solutions that pertain to their industry and will help them with go-to-market strategies in the US,” said Parag Amin, cofounder and chief mentor of iCreate.

    Chambers said while entering in the highly competitive US market, startups will need navigators like him or other US-based investors or companies.

    USISPF members include Warburg Pincus, Emerson Electric, PepsiCo, Mastercard, Marriott International, FedEx, Dell EMC, Cisco, Caterpillar, Boeing, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and 21st Century Fox.

    “John Chambers has personally taken tremendous interest in the promotion of entrepreneurship, especially in India and he insists this to do,” said Amin, adding that almost two years back, Chambers was instrumental in the establishment of the CISCO Innovation Lab at iCreate.

    Apart from this, USISPF and iCreate will also be working on bringing US entrepreneurs and their solutions to Indian markets using the ‘Landing Pad’ programme at iCreate.
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