The Indian entity will target annual investments to the tune of $75 million in e-commerce focussed projects. This, sources said, could be hiked to $100 per annum depending on the opportunities. Other partners in the Indian fund will be i2 Technologies and Dell supremo Michael Dell promoted MSD Capital.

The company will invest in information technology and remote-processing start-ups. Insight Capital Partners' special partner Ramanan Raghvendran will head the Indian operations of ConnectCapital as chief executive officer.

This will be second Microsoft investment in a Indian VCF after Chrysalis in which it had put in $5 million. However, unlike Chrysalis which has made a lot of investments in business-to-consumer portals, ConnectCapital is expected to stick to B2B space with a focus on incubating the start-ups..

Insight Capital is a global private equity firm with presence in New York and Amsterdam. It has so far made 50 investments globally in business-to-business vertical segments that includes manufacturing, telecom, financial services, energy, retail and healthcare.

It has on its board the former Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO Steve Friedman and former Sachs chairman and presently director member in the office of Citigroup chairman, Robert Rubin, as special limited partners.