APUS pursues close cooperation with Indian tech partners

APUS Group, a Chinese Android app developer, has laid out a Rs 300 crore plan to invest in Indian tech startups and that will create 500 jobs and solidify ties with the Indian startup community. In looking to build long-term connections with a number of Indian startups, APUS is also hoping to better connect with users in the world’s most important emerging mobile Internet market.

As the predominant emerging market, India’s Internet companies are expected to see a break out period over the next three years, and era which APUS CEO Tao Li is really looking forward to. "As an emerging market, the Indian market's potential is great and we would like to extend our assistance to the early stage start-ups. Being one of the crucial markets for us, the foundation of APUS Fund will accelerate the development of APUS Group and strengthen our relationship with the country,” said Li.

APUS is interested in partnerships with Indian startups that can help APUS relate to Indian users at a very local level, and increase the number of APUS users in India from 30 million to 80 million by the end of 2016. “We are looking at providing more localized services and experiences to Indian users and augment India-specific content,” CEO Tao Li said of reaching out to Indian consumers.

While APUS Group has already invested in iamwire and formed a long-term strategic partnership with InMobi, APUS’s investors are backing the group to begin investment and technological cooperations with a number of other promising startups. Projects with Indian enterprises will include product, marketing, strategic cooperation and content partnerships in which both sides can share resources to achieve a mutually beneficial result.

APUS will establish an operations center, global research and discussion center and a technical support center in 2016, which will act as a foundation for the group to work more closely with its Indian partners in areas that extend beyond finance. CEO Tao Li has pledged that APUS will not only contribute financial resources to development of Indian startups, but also share its technology and ideas, which is something "something the VC’s (venture capitalists) rarely do".

The investment and partnership opportunities may be coming at a crucial time for Indian startups, who are feeling the impact of the global stock market slump. Having raised a series Series-A round of 16 million dollars, and a Series-B round of 100 million dollars, APUS and its investors are positioned to devote resources to emerging companies at a development stage. "Our investors completely support our plans for India, and if there are good cases they will invest with us in India," said CEO Tao Li.

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