Patni expands Chennai operations

CHENAI: Patni, a Mumbai-based software exporting company, is going in for an expansion in its development center in Chennai by doubling its staff strength to 600 by recruiting 300 more IT professionals by the end of this year.



Besides recruiting more software professionals, Patni intends to start its retail work out of Chennai.

According to PJ Kutar, Resident Director, Patni, "Chennai plays a crucial role in our business firstly because of its abundant talent pool. Secondly, Chennai will serve as our Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Center just because it is well placed. This will be in addition to the ones we have in Pune and Wobourn for our BPO business."

The Disaster Recovery Center would look at its component level, facility level, data level and also site level. To augment into these activities, the company would be pooling in an investment of another $one million in terms of infrastructure in its facility in Chennai. As of now it has invested $1.5 million in this facility.

Patni went in for a Venture Capital funding from General Atlantic Partners last year. General Atlantic made an investment of $100 million. "The funding from General Atlantic," said Kutar, "was for the company’s internal growth and acquisitions of companies that will fit into their business strategy. Patni recorded 34-37 percent growth this year."

"Considering the way we are growing, going public would be the next logical step. We are studying the market though we have not yet finalized on the time or date," he added. Recently the company forayed into the BPO sphere with a spending of $20 million.