Mindtree secures $14.4m second round funding

BANGALORE: Mindtree Consulting has secured $14.4 million in second round of

funding led by The Capital Group, Los Angeles, USA, announced Ashok Soota,

chairman and chief executive officer, at a press conference here on Friday.

Mindtree, which has projected annual revenues of $231 million by 2005, is

structured into two business units that focus on software development and an

enterprise business designing applications.

Soota also announced that about 16.7 per cent of the funding would be set

aside for employee stock options. "The rest of the funding will be used

very conservatively in expanding in new geographical areas, adding new services,

knowledge management, training, building physical infrastructure, long-term

leasing and sharing with investors," said the chairman.

Currently having 40 plus customers, Mindtree officials said that in the past

six weeks they have bagged major contracts almost every week from both large and

mid-sized companies.

According to vice chairman and president (Europe and APAC) N Krishnakumar,

nearly 10 per cent of the business has already come in from the European and

Asia-Pacific markets. "As a global company, we are dedicated to building a

strong culture of empathy so our customers can benefit from the speed, quality

and affordability achieved through our global delivery model."

In 1999, Mindtree had secured $9.5 million in first round of venture capital

from US-based Waleden International and India’s Global Technology Ventures.

Presently with an employee strength of 450, the company seeks to increase it 750

by the next year.

Ashok Soota said his company would continue to invest in India and would also

explore the Middle East and Japanese market. The company is also exploring

annuity streams of revenue.

Mindtree president S Janakiraman said Mindtree’s main thrust would be in

datacom, wireless and embedded segments while they would pursue ERP,

datawarehousing, supply-chain management and infrastructure support services

with equal passion.