Nirvana to boost staff to 1000

BANGALORE: Indian back-office services startup Nirvana Business Solutions Pvt Ltd said in a statement it had raised $6 million from high-profile finance experts in a second round of funding.

The company said that the investors included Victor Menezes, senior vice-chairman at Citigroup Inc; Rajat Gupta, former managing director of McKinsey & Co; and Richard Fisher, former chairman of Morgan Stanley. The firm raised about $3 million last year.

Nirvana, founded by Raj Kondur, the former managing director of venture capital firm ChrysCapital, provides accounting and financial services and technical support to overseas firms.

The company, which has about six clients mainly in the financial services and telecom sectors, aims to quadruple the number of workers to 1,000 by the end of this year, officials said.

"Nirvana is also in discussions with several global investors to raise an institutional round of funding early next year," the Bangalore-based company said.

India has over the past two years seen a mushrooming of companies that offer call centre services and white-collar work such as accounting and payroll management to global clients.

But experts say cut-rate competition is eroding the profitability of these firms.

© Reuters