Mumbai-based contact centre company
Epicenter is planning to invest up
to $5 million, in order to set up
its fourth centre by April, next year.
Recently, the company raised $4 million
as part of its second round from investors
including GW Capital and Infinity
Ventures.
“We will use our funds from
second round and internal accruals
to set up our fourth centre,”
the company’s chief executive
officer K. Vijay Rao told eFE. The
company claims to be making profits
of Rs 1 to 2 crore every month and
is left with over $1 million from
its second fund.
The company is planning to set up
its new centre with a capacity of
300 to 500 seats. The cost of one
seat works out to around $ 10,000,
according to Mr. Rao. It is still
evaluating locations for its new facility
and is closely looking at places including
Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.
“In January, we will finalise
the details of the fourth centre and
by April 2003, we should be up and
running with our new facility,”
Mt. Rao said.
The company is also looking at acquisitions
of players in the IT-enabled services
(ITES) space, both within the country
and outside the country.
“Acquisitions is a part of our
strategy to grow and we will be looking
at companies both within the country
and outside India,” he said.
All three centres of Epicenter are
located in Mumbai with a total of
900 seats. It has close to 1,200 agents,
according to Mr. Rao.
At present, Infinity has 10 per cent
stake, Mr. Rao holds 32 per cent,
Kalyani Group has 43-45 per cent and
the founder of Ariba Ken Eldrad owns
the rest (14 per cent).
This fiscal, the company is targeting
revenues and profits of Rs 86 crore
and Rs 18 crore respectively, according
to Mr. Rao. In the last fiscal, Epicenter
was not profitable but managed to
earn revenues of Rs 17 crore.
Epicenter’s clients include
six US-based Fortune 100 companies,
most of which are in the financial
services segment.
The company is in the process of getting
three more US-based customers.
