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Washington, D.C., November 26, 2002—
The International Finance Corporation, the private sector development arm of the World Bank Group, will invest US$10 million in New Path Ventures, which is incubating and developing companies in the field of semiconductor design and related software. In addition, IFC has the authority to invest up to $10 million in future funding rounds of New Path’s incubated companies for a combined investment of up to $20 million.
The mission of NewPath Ventures is to create leading-edge technology companies which take advantage of the cost effective development and implementation strengths of India. Each company will also have a product definition and marketing unit in the U.S. The two founders, Vin Dham and Tushar Dave, have extensive entrepreneurial and operational experience. Mr. Dham has experience in the semiconductor design industry, having held senior posts at Intel, AMD, Broadcom, Silicon Spice, and NexGen. At Intel, Mr. Dham was the Vice President and General Manager of the Pentium Processor Division. His partner Mr. Dave also has broad industry experience with firms such as Intel, Broadcom, Armedia, and Arcus.
New Path Ventures will create three to five companies, investing approximately $5 to $10 million in each, and will actively manage each company through prototype completion. Total funding of $56 million has been raised by New Path from an investor group including New Enterprise Associates, ChrysCapital, CMEA Ventures, and Adams Street Partners.
Mohsen Khalil, the World Bank Group’s Director for Global Information and Communication Technologies, said, “New Path is an important initiative for the future development of India’s information technology sector, representing a strong opportunity to strengthen India’s position in the high-skill, high value-added areas of the industry.”
Tushar Dave, Principal of New Path, said, “New Path will leverage India’s tremendous technology talent pool by undertaking development of products for all our portfolio companies done in India to serve global markets. We look forward to working closely with IFC in this endeavor.”
The World Bank Group established the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department (
www.ifc.org/ict
) in 2000 to promote the transfer of information technologies to the developing world. The department focuses on projects which are expected to expand communications networks and information technology in developing countries.
The mission of IFC (
www.ifc.org
), part of the World Bank Group (
www.worldbank.org
), is to promote sustainable private sector investment in developing countries, helping to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. IFC finances private sector investments in the developing world, mobilizes capital in the international financial markets, and provides technical assistance and advice to governments and businesses. Since its founding in 1956 through FY 2002, IFC has committed more than $34 billion of its own funds and arranged $21 billion in syndications for 2,825 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC’s worldwide committed portfolio as of FY02 was $15.1 billion for its own account and $6.5 billion held for participants in loan syndications.
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