Investment billionaire Ambani sets his sights on Israel in quest for startups

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is scouting for startups that may dovetail with his own plans for e-commerce and phone services in India. For that, he is willing to look as far as Israel and Silicon Valley in the United States.

GenNext Ventures, owned by his Reliance Industries Ltd, is talking to other venture capital firms and private equity investors in those countries and in the United Kingdom to pick out candidates, Managing Partner Vivek Rai Gupta said in an interview. The selected startups could use Reliance's network to gain access to a market that is now the biggest for Facebook Inc after the US.

"It can be a two-way street," said Gupta, who used to head the India operations of consulting firm A.T. Kearney until 2008. "It gives them an opportunity to come to a big market like India and for us, it is an opportunity to interface with the best new ideas from that country."